20/06/2023
NEWS STORY
"We made it work," says Alex Albon as he praises Williams bold strategic gamble in Canada.
While Williams past their sell by date facilities and equipment might take some time to fix, the arrival of Mercedes former chief of strategy, James Vowles as team principal already appears to be paying off.
On Saturday, Alex Albon made it into Q3 courtesy of the decision to switch from Inters to slicks at precisely the correct moment, while the following day another strategic gamble paid off.
Of course, the Anglo-Thai driver was never realistically expected to keep the likes of the Ferrari pair and Sergio Perez at bay, however the decision to make just one stop, and switch him from mediums to a super-long stint on hards resulted in the youngster finishing seventh and widely being recognised as the driver of the day.
Williams opted to pit the youngster under the Safety Car that followed George Russell's clash with the barriers, the Grove outfit gambling that its boy - who has previous experience - could make it to the end while those around him (on mediums) would need to stop again.
Slowly he progressed through the field, so that by the time the second round of stops got underway he was up to eleventh.
Running as high as sixth, he was subsequently passed by Perez on Lap 39, before spending the remainder of the afternoon frustrating the best efforts of those behind, despite their fresher tyres.
"We've been in that position a lot of times,” he told Sky Sports. “This was one of the times where I felt like the closing speed was a little bit too much. Sometimes you can see someone catching up from behind, you think 'I know as soon as they catch me, they're not really going to be able to overtake me'. When it's a second a lap, and they're coming in quick.
"It was tough," he admitted. “I just remember getting the call and, you know, 'we've got 30, 40 laps left' and I was like 'What? Oh my God, I hope that's not real'. It's not fun to drive around on old tyres, but we made it work. I've done these races a lot now. I can tell you, they're not that fun.
"To be honest, I do think we had similar pace to the McLarens the whole weekend," he said of the strategy. "Realistically, where we were, we had to do something different to them as they were in front to get the points.
"To get points is difficult," he continued. "You've got those eight cars, the Astons, the Red Bulls, the Ferraris and the Mercedes, the final two positions and it feels like it's normally the Alpines now. So we had to stick to the one-stop.
"We're good at defending, we have a straight-line car," he explained, "and in these situations, you're obviously in a big tyre deficit, but at the same time, saving the tyres to make the key corners count. So Turn 10, I was making sure I positioned the car in Esteban's dirty air to try to still make him hurt his tyres, hurt his traction and all that kind of thing. You're driving a race that's very much in your rear-view mirrors, even though obviously you're trying not to make mistakes.
"The other thing that is obvious is when the tread comes down, the tyres start to cool down quite a lot, and you have to start pushing, and by the end of the race you see white parts where you're right down to the canvas.
"You've got to push flat out, it feels like qualifying for the last 20 laps. At the same time, you can't afford to make a mistake, there's this real balance going on. But that's what we're paid for."
The youngster was also delighted with the upgrade which was only on his car this weekend.
"It's almost like just doing enough to keep them behind, and making sure that you still got enough in the tank for the rest of the race. That's something which is quite tricky to gauge. I wouldn't have been able to do it without a good car. I mean, honestly speaking this weekend we've had we've had a great car."