24/03/2024
NEWS STORY
Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: Having not done any meaningful high fuel running until today, we started the race on the backfoot.
"We knew that graining would be an issue, especially after the mandated tyre pressures were increased on Friday night, however, we didn't do enough to mitigate the issue and this left Alex stuck between front graining and rear tyre degradation.
The car wasn't quick enough in race trim this weekend, which left Alex having to find the laptime by pushing the tyres, which accelerated the degradation and left us unable to fight with the cars that we should be able to race with. For this to coincide with a race with so many fast cars retiring is even more frustrating as there is no reason why, with more experience from Friday, we couldn't have been fighting Yuki for P8.
It has been a difficult weekend for obvious reasons and whilst the attitude throughout the team has been very impressive, we all leave Melbourne disappointed by today's result. We will be in Japan in two weeks' time, and we look forward to tackling the very different demands of the great track in Suzuka.
Alex Albon: Our early pit stops were disguising our lack of race pace today; we tried to stay in the race by pitting early and getting back track position but ultimately the pace of our competitors was too strong. Every time I tried to match the pace with the cars around me, I would grain and when I could do my own race, I was three and a half tenths off the pace. We had a lot of graining and were fighting the car everywhere, so we need to have a good look at why. With three of the top teams retiring, it's frustrating that we couldn't capitalise on this and our rivals did, but it shows our pace wasn't quick enough to still be sitting outside the points.
It's been a tough weekend for us at Williams but we've pulled through quite well and really come together as a team. Everyone at the track has really dug deep so I can only thank them for their hard work and dedication and of course to Logan for being a true team player. Truthfully, I'm quite happy with my performance considering the circumstances but we're going to continue to rally as a team and hopefully come back fighting in Japan.
Check out our Sunday gallery from Melbourne here.