Williams’ Racing Head of Vehicle Performance Dave Robson felt the team missed an opportunity to score good FIA Formula 1 World championship points in Melbourne after chaos throughout the Australian Grand Prix.
Alex Albon qualified excellently on Saturday, but ultimately failed to convert it into any points in the race. The Thai driver was running as high as sixth on lap seven, when he lost the car and crashed into the wall at turn seven ending his race. Albon apologised to the team after the race and recognized it had to been a good oppourtunity for himself and the team to score big points, with Robson remarking he was on for a comfortable top ten finish.
“It was a remarkable race but ultimately it was a missed opportunity for us. Alex built on his excellent qualifying display to make more positions at the start and was looking good for a comfortable top ten finish. Unfortunately, touching the kerb at high speed in Turn 5 led to a small snap and a spike in tyre temperature, which led him to lose the car at the next corner.”
Logan Sargeant had an equally frustrating race as his teammate and was forced to retire after an incident on the red flag restart with Nyck de Vries. The American driver also struggled with strategy throughout the race and was caught out by a red flag, which saw his early pit stop lose him a big chunk of time.
“We tried a different initial strategy with Logan, but the early red flag rendered that ineffective. Although he had some decent pace, he was unable to benefit from the unusual way that race developed ahead.
“We leave Melbourne frustrated that we couldn’t take advantage of our good pace and turn it into points. However, the whole team can be heartened that the car worked very well this weekend and we will be able to put ourselves into similar positions in future races, starting in Baku in a few weeks’ time.”