Albon wary of threat facing Williams

Williams driver Alex Albon says he is wary of the threat facing the team, as they look to build on their momentum from last season.

After finishing seventh in the Constructors’ Championship, there is a lot of attention on whether Williams can improve further up the grid this year and finish more regularly in the points.

Albon was a key standout after making it to Q3 in qualifying seven times, reaching as high as fourth on the grid for the Dutch Grand Prix. He believes the team has made strides with the FW46, but was keen to not build up too much hype and expectation.

“There’s a couple of things, personally speaking, I want to try to improve going into this year. I think for every driver is there’s always room for improvement somewhere,” said Albon.

“Then for the team, we’ll have to wait and see. I feel like every team is going to make a big step. Everyone talks about numbers and how many points they’ve added on, and how much quicker they are.

“It’s all comparative, so let’s see how we compare to everyone else. But we’ve definitely done a good job. I don’t want to talk a big game too early.”

Albon: We were so focused on the championship last year

Williams elected to switch its focus on the FW46 midway through last season, but Albon said some of this work was compromised due to their focus on fighting for seventh in the Constructors’ Championship.

“It was tricky last year because we were so focused on the championship to try and finish P7 so we couldn’t let it go too much, in terms of sim work, too much into this year,” added Albon.

“So it was split and as the year went on, we started to almost only focus on the on the FW46 car. We’ve got some decent simulator drivers as well who are doing the background work every time.

“We’ve been jumping in since Christmas, and seeing it ticking along and the progression of the car has been really fascinating to see.”