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Stunning Williams pace at Silverstone as surprising to Albon as everyone else
Alex Albon admits he doesn’t know why Williams is so competitive at the British Grand Prix after finishing in the top three in both practice sessions on Friday.
Williams brought a significant upgrade to Canada, where Albon finished seventh, and was similarly competitive in Austria but missed out on points over the sprint weekend. Expecting Silverstone to be less suited to the car than the previous two venues, Williams impressed with Albon third in each practice session -- 0.2s off Max Verstappen -- and Logan Sargeant backing him up in fifth place in FP2.
“We don’t (know) either, so … I’d be lying to say it’s not surprising,” Albon said. “Obviously we’re not doing anything special. It’s strange, because, without sounding pessimistic, it doesn’t feel too great out there for us -- but it clearly must feel worse for the others.
It might not have felt that great to him, but Albon was encouragingly close to Verstappen's pace-setting Red Bull on Friday at Silverstone. Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
“I think the wind out there today is a real pain -- it really separates the balance of the car -- but we seem to be coping with it much better than anyone else. We’ve also got the upgrade package; what we’ve seen has been a bit better for high-speed corners than low-speed -- Austria was kind of a low-speed track. Maybe it’s partly due to that, but like I said, it’s a bit of a question mark.
“Our long-run pace was also strong on the hard tire. We’ve got to keep grounded and just focus on ourselves. A bit of a strange one to finish the lap and see yourself in the top three.”
Albon says the challenge for Williams will be not trying too hard to chase a better setup when the current compromise appears to be the most competitive option, even if it doesn’t feel good behind the wheel.
“Truthfully if you talk about balance, every corner is different here because the wind is hitting the car in different ways, so you get what you call a very disconnected car. There’s a lot you can do, but it’s very hard. Let’s say Turn 3 is oversteer, Turn 4 is understeer -- you can’t really attack those corners and do setup work because they’re the same corner speeds and you’re just getting a headwind or a tailwind.
“It’s all about compromise at this circuit. So we’re learning, but at the same time it’s all about optimizing for these kinds of conditions. Again, we’ve just got to keep grounded, as it’s a bit surprising for us. We’ll take it and see what happens tomorrow.”
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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