Anyone who guessed the first three places in Friday practice before the Formula 1 weekend at Silverstone probably didn’t have the name of Alexander Albon on their list. But the Williams driver took third place in both practice one and two.
That comes as “a bit of a surprise” to himself, because: “We weren’t messing around and doing weird things. It was just a normal day for us and we crossed the finish line and we’re in the top 3. So in a way, that’s it a bit confusing,” says Albon.
Having teammate Logan Sargeant fifth on Friday’s combined timesheets didn’t make the team’s performance any less amazing. Some observers therefore assumed that Williams was running on little gas to look good at the home race.
That’s not the case, according to Albon, although team boss James Vowles admitted after FT1: “We look strong but we were more focused on qualifying than others. Some teams didn’t even run the soft tire and we have it used quite late.”
In FT2, however, Albon was able to confirm his strong position. “We have to look at the data and try to understand it,” muses Dave Robson, chief of vehicle performance. He believes the Montreal update may have played a role.
Is the Montreal update really taking off now?
“We thought we’d be a little bit better here on a high-speed line with the package we put in Canada,” said Robson, who said the update hadn’t shown its full potential yet.
Because although Albon got the best result of the season for Williams in Canada with seventh place and he recently made it into the top 10 again at least in qualifying in Spielberg, the update brought two races ago will probably first unfold its full effect this weekend.
“It’s so tight in Austria and the lap is so short. Even if the performance is right, it’s easy to fall behind the timesheets, make a mistake or go off the track. So I think the performance in Austria was quite good ‘ explains Robson.
“It takes a lot more to achieve a good result than just the pure pace of the car,” he explains, and Vowles also confirms: “Since Montreal we’ve had an update on the car that, if we do everything right, can get a point.”
“We didn’t do everything right in Austria. That’s the reality behind it,” said the team boss, who still believes that the update should now regularly enable Williams to fight for the top 10. “And I think that also applies to this weekend,” he emphasizes.
Robson: Need to understand why we were so good
Robson adds that “the performance in the high-speed corners” was probably responsible for the good result on Friday. “It was a better day than we expected,” he explains, but stresses that this will not change the approach.
“If we go through the data and other things tonight, that’s probably more important than if we have a difficult Friday. It’s really more important to understand why it went well and to make sure we don’t screw it up,” said Robson .
Incidentally, in Silverstone itself there were only minor updates for the FW45. Robson reveals: “Alex rode a new front wing which is working well. He will be keeping it for the rest of the weekend. Logan has been looking at a new rear wing which will be used later in the season.”
Albon himself explains that the car felt good, although it wasn’t easy due to the typical wind at Silverstone. “It’s terrible for everyone – but it’s definitely less bad for us than for others,” he says, adding: “It’s looking good, but we have to keep our feet on the ground.”
The teammate also confirms that Friday was “tricky” and that the balance kept changing during the lap. Ultimately, however, “a good compromise” was achieved, and the rookie also notes: “We look pretty good.”
Sargeant: Better no rain on Saturday…
But he also emphasizes: “I think [am Samstag] many things will change. It will be much cooler, rain is on the way.” Nevertheless, it was “cool” to be “relatively close” to the top. “You never know what the others are doing,” he says, but is still cautious .
In the end they made the best of the conditions and that will be the goal again on Saturday. “Ideally it just stays dry,” he grins, because after the strong performance on Friday, rain would probably do more harm than good to Williams this time.
“The most important thing is that we learn with the package that we have and really make the best of it by progressing relative to a very competitive group,” stresses Vowles, who reckons under normal circumstances it will be difficult to score on Sunday.
Because with Red Bull, Mercedes, Aston Martin and Ferrari there are four teams at the front who normally share the first eight places among themselves. “And that means there are only two spots at the bottom of the top 10 that we’re fighting for at the moment,” calculates Vowles.
Qualifying on Saturday will then show how far ahead Williams really is this time in the field of pursuers.