With sixth place by Alexander Albon, Williams scored as many points at the Belgium Grand Prix 2025 in one fell swoop as in the five Grands Prix. That raises the question: Did Williams leave his low in shape?
Albon himself sees his performance as a “good sign”. After several technical problems in the past few weeks, Williams has stabilized again in Spa-Francorchamps. “In the meantime it is so far that we should get points as long as everything runs smoothly,” says Albon at “Sky”. That is a “great feeling” for the entire team.
However, it is still too early to speak of a real trend reversal: “We had a really strong race in Belgium. The package definitely helped, because without the upgrade we would not have been so far. But we have to wait further distances to really know where we are. Because Spa has always been well.”
Why Albon didn’t risk anything when changing tires
The Hungaroring at Budapest in Hungary, on the other hand, is “not a good route” for Williams, says Albon. “We have to see: If we are good there, the rest of the season should also be good for us. But let’s wait.” Waiting was also in Belgium Albon’s motto: he did not want to drive to the Williams-Box in round eleven to switch from intermediate on Slicks-unlike Lewis Hamilton in Ferrari, who heralded the pit stop round.
Albon explains: “It was a bit tricky because there were still many streaks of water in the brake zones. I didn’t want to try it out first – not in our position. Maybe it was a bit conservative, but in our location it is better to be on the safe side.” Because Albon was already in sixth place in the race at that time.
After the start, he even took fifth place, but was then replaced by George Russell in the Mercedes. “In the beginning we were vulnerable because we had a few difficulties in the rain,” says Albon.
With dry tires it went well for Albon
“Especially in the fast corners, we find it difficult with the intermediate. But as soon as the others had to struggle with strong tire mining, we were suddenly quite good at the end of the stint.”
But only after switching to dry tires in round twelve did Albon increase again in Williams. Then he consolidated his position: “We were quick. Not as fast as the top teams, but fast enough to keep Lewis behind us. I think we were about ten to twelve seconds ahead of the next midfield car.”
So that my Albon racing Bulls from Liam Lawson in eighth place, which he actually distanced by around twelve seconds at the finish. That was “really not bad”, says Albon. He himself consolidated his eighth place in the Formula 1 driver classification 2025 and made Williams a little more buffer in the fight for fifth place in the design classification.