Alex Albon: “The whole race we were more or less matching the McLarens”

Williams Racing’s Alex Albon was on the verge of points at the Austrian Grand Prix, ending up taking twelfth place after starting in fifteenth. In his battle to fight for the final points position, Albon said that he was too hard on his tyres– leading him to losing crucial positions. 

“It was a fun race. We took risks, we were bold and I had to push a little bit too hard on the tyres to keep up with Valtteri as he was a little bit quicker than us, so I knew what I was doing wasn’t kind to the tyres but I was trying to stay close to him.”

Overall, Albon was happy with the race in spite of missing out on points, as he said the car advanced in Austria and was performing about on par with the likes of McLaren F1 Team. 

Albon retired after the first lap incident last time out at the British Grand Prix, which meant that it was essentially the first time the team’s new aerodynamics package was tested under race conditions, and he said that they gained a lot of knowledge to use moving forward. 

“You risk and you push to fight for points and today it didn’t quite work out for us, but I still feel it was a good race. The whole race we were more or less matching the McLarens, we hit a bit of traffic here and there but I was really happy with our pace and we’ve definitely made a step forward this weekend. 

“It was the first proper race with the new aero upgrade that we have and there’s a lot learnt from today so we can look at the data and come back stronger in France.”

“The decision was to retire the car to save the engine mileage and we’ll be ready to go again In France” – Nicholas Latifi

Team-mate Nicholas Latifi suffered floor damage from debris and a run over the curb, which impacted his car’s balance and hindered his pace. 

As his race continued, his performance worsened and the team ultimately retired him on lap forty-eight to protect the car and save engine mileage. 

“We sustained floor damage from running over some debris at the start of the race and I ran wide on one curb. Towards the end of the first stint I could feel the balance getting worse. 

“Beginning of the second stint there was a lack of downforce and pace. The decision was to retire the car to save the engine mileage and we’ll be ready to go again In France.”