02/04/2023
NEWS STORY
Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: It was a remarkable race but ultimately it was a missed opportunity for us. Alex built on his excellent qualifying display to make more positions at the start and was looking good for a comfortable top ten finish. Unfortunately, touching the kerb at high speed in Turn 5 led to a small snap and a spike in tyre temperature, which led him to lose the car at the next corner.
We tried a different initial strategy with Logan, but the early red flag rendered that ineffective. Although he had some decent pace, he was unable to benefit from the unusual way that race developed ahead.
We leave Melbourne frustrated that we couldn't take advantage of our good pace and turn it into points. However, the whole team can be heartened that the car worked very well this weekend and we will be able to put ourselves into similar positions in future races, starting in Baku in a few weeks' time.
Alex Albon: We're still looking at the data but there was nothing unusual in the corner itself. When I lost the car, I was going through slower than the previous lap; I went wide on the corner before and spiked the tyre temperatures, losing grip and going into the next corner a bit hot, so I think that's what happened but we need to look at it. With all the accidents, it was a good chance to score points this weekend, so I'm very sorry to the team. I'm disappointed, as we had a great car today and were really strong.
Logan Sargeant: The race in general just didn't quite fall our way, with it being a really tricky day. We pitted to the medium tyre following the first safety car, and it just wasn't the tyre to be on today and I really struggled with it. Once we got to the hard tyre, the pace wasn't too bad, so to end it like that is unfortunate. We tried to take some chances today and it just didn't pay off. I've learnt a lot from today, so hopefully can use these learnings going forward.
Check out our Sunday gallery from Melbourne here.