Williams wants Albon to get tough and 'push team harder'

Williams was happy to capitalise this year on Alex Albon's experience, but the British outfit wants its lead driver to be "a bit harder" and push the team more according to technical director François-Xavier Demaison.

Albon joined Williams at the start of 2022 after a year on the sidelines with Red Bull.

The Anglo-Thai racer cut his teeth in Formula 1 with Toro Rosso in 2019 before he transferred mid-season to Red Bull Racing.

However, his results relative to his blindingly fast teammate Max Verstappen did not quite fulfil the team's expectations. But after a year off, Albon returned to active duty with Williams for the Grove-based outfit's first season under the sport's new regulations.

Save for three top-ten finishes, Albon has little to show for his efforts in 2022, but the 26-year-old is nevertheless well considered by his team who value both his talent and his experience.

"It was a really good help for us, because we are only engineers and we need drivers to give us a direction," commented Demaison who heads Williams engineering department.

"Because of his experience [in F1], it’s helped us and given us the right direction."

• Read also: Albon still not back to 100 per cent after surgery

As a personable character, Albon is one of F1's most popular young drivers and a member - along with Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris and George Russell - of F1's facetious 'Twitch Quartet' that entertained fans online during the delayed start to F1's Covid-impacted 2020 campaign.

But Demaison would sometimes like to see his charger act as tough with his crews as he does when racing a rival wheel-to-wheel out on the track.

"He’s a nice person – sometimes too nice," explained the Frenchman. He needs to be a bit more hard with the team and push us a bit more, but I’m working on this.

"It’s his nature – unless he has the helmet on, then he can be hard – but he should be a bit harder in the debrief."

Demaison is clearly in the camp of those in F1 who believe that nice guys don't in championships.

"Every day I tell him, ‘You have to be a…’ – a word I will not pronounce! If you want to be a World Champion, you have to be like this," said the Williams tech boss;

Albon was Williams' de facto team leader this season, and that will be the case again in 2023 when American rookie Logan Sargeant takes over the seat vacated by Nicholas Latifi.

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