Alexander Albon was annoyed after the qualifying for the Formula 1 race in Silverstone: “We were quick all weekend. Quickly in Q1, quickly in Run 1 of Q2-and then you like P14,” he quarrels. “It’s extremely frustrating.”
The Thai area was not only annoyed by the missing pace, but also through his own team, which made incomprehensible decisions for him. Because Williams sent Albon in Q1 on the track with fresh tires when Franco Colapinto had flown to the route. “We drove out, although it was pretty clear that there would be a red flag.”
“We have wasted a tire set directly in qualifying,” he criticizes and demands an internal review of how this could happen. Because the Williams driver in Q2 first had to drive on used tires. The round was quite good for this, he says.
In the second run, the next annoyance followed for Albon: “We wanted to get out at the forefront, wherever Max also [Verstappen] Was “, he says. The problem:” Max ‘Outlap was about 15 to 20 seconds slower than ours. So we used our last fresh sentence without the round being prepared at all. “
“We make it difficult for ourselves”
Therefore, Albon only made it to 14th place and struggled. “Q2 was clearly compromised, let’s say it. We have to check what we did,” he says. “We generally go out early in quality – we like that – but today it was too much. We have to understand why we always want to go out so early.”
For him, this shows that Williams still has a lot to learn: “Our car becomes faster and more competitive, and we have to make sure that we use it,” he demands. “Sure, we hang a little after the updates of other teams – but still we should have had at least one car in Q3 today, maybe even two.”
“In a way, we stood in our way. I don’t take myself away either – I was not satisfied with my own performance in Q2 – but we also make it difficult to do with such situations,” he criticizes.
“We are constantly improving, analyzing a lot. I think we at Williams are extremely self -critical, look a lot on ourselves and really try to improve. Such days like today or the past few weeks show us that there is still a lot to do.”
Sainz ends up in the expected area
Even for his team -mate Carlos Sainz, things went only slightly better, because when eleventh, he too got stuck in the second section. For him, on the other hand, this was an expected result: “We were all the weekend in this time window between P9 and P14 -. In the middle of midfield. And if everyone throws together in Q2, you never know exactly how you are in comparison.”
With some set-up experiments and attempts to get the reliability problems under control, Williams did not ideally prepare for qualifying, as he says, but the round felt good, “said the Spaniard.
“I think we are in a phase of the season in which we had actually expected to be competitive – but the other teams have simply developed a bit. We are now in a situation where it is already a small effort for Q3, and we need a small performance boost.”
It would be particularly important for Williams on Sunday to see the target flag. Albon recently left three times in a row, Sainz could not even start in Spielberg. This should be different this time: “We do everything we can to have no problem tomorrow and work with it with high pressure,” emphasizes Sainz.
“We changed everything that was possible on the car. Hopefully we will fight for the last points, but we will do our best.”
Albon: Williams localized problem
According to Albon, the team now knows quite exactly the area in which its problem is: in the engine. “In FT1 we installed many sensors that were aimed at this area. It is becoming increasingly clear what it is,” he says. “Even on a weekend like this, we still have to optimize our package and proceed carefully so as not to trigger the same problems.”
But he is confident that Williams can fix the problem this year – and that is also necessary, especially when you see how many points we have already lost through the problem. As soon as the upgrade comes, we need a car that also comes to the finish. “
“In a way, we are lucky – due to the cool temperatures in Silverstone – but later a few hot races come later. We have to be prepared.”