Albon feels new FW44 aero package ‘is bringing something’
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Alex Albon believes the significant upgrade introduced by Williams at Silverstone has provided the British outfit with a “completely different car” and a good base from which to continue the development of its FW44.
For now, Albon remains the single recipient of the FW44’s upgrade, with teammate Nicholas Latifi expected to get his hands on the new package in France or Hungary later this month.
Unfortunately, adverse weather at Silverstone and Albon’s start-line crash limited the team’s data gathering process and therefore its knowledge ahead of this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix.
By Friday’s sessions at the Red Bull Ring and Albon’s encouraging P12 in qualifying offered Williams a positive view on its revised contender.
“The car is very good and if you look at the timings, a tenth would have got us into Q3, so of course you can always look at it and say ’I could have gone a bit quicker there’,” Albon said.
“But P12 in, let’s say, a pure qualifying, and apart from maybe Yuki [Tsunoda] and Lando [Norris] who didn’t get a great one, we were there on pace. It puts us in a good place for [the Sprint].”
Albon will actually line up 11th on Saturday’s sprint race grid following Sergio Perez’s demotion from P4 to P13 following the deletion of his Q3 lap times.
The Anglo-Thai driver said it was still early days to fully appreciate the benefit of the FW44’s new package.
“We do have good straight-line speed which also helps us, but I do think the aero package is bringing something,” he said.
“If you look at it right now, it is almost a completely different car to what we have had before. It gives us a lot of scope to improve as well. It is a good base to keep developing.
“We have got this early stage of this characteristic of a new car and now we are here to explore it. To get on top of it as quickly as we have done, I only see it getting better towards the rest of the season.”
While encouraged by his car’s step forward, the Williams charger admitted that it is perhaps a more difficult proposition on track due to its “peaky” behaviour.
“If anything it is a little bit harder to drive,” said Albon. “It is a bit more peaky in that sense, but when you get on top of it, it is good.
“There is a bit of a learning curve to it and obviously we don’t want it to always be peaky and tricky. But with the limited amount of running we have done that is so far the general feeling.”
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