Albon now has 'stability and focus' into the future

Alex Albon says he now has the "stability and focus" to help Williams develop its way forward as the spotlight is no longer on his survival in Formula 1.

Albon returned to the grid in 2022 after a year on the sidelines with Red Bull.

Although points were hard to come by last season, with the Anglo-Thai charger scoring just three top-ten finishes, Albon was commended for his level of performance over the course of the year, especially given the "tricky" aero weakness of Williams' FW44.

The 26-year-old reckons he could have done much better with a better balanced FW44.

"It’s a tricky one, because the car can be much quicker with the right balance to it," Albon told Motorsport.com.

"It feels like at the minute, we’re quite restricted on performance just because of how we’re tied in at some places. Certain tracks really expose us, like Brazil or Mexico.

"But I know for a fact what we need to do to the car. We’ve just got to find it, really.

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"There’s no easy given that we’re going to just be able to say we need this in the car and we’ll be able to get it. There’s a lot of correlation that needs to be correct.

"There’s a lot of different departments in the factory that we need to get moving and into the right direction together. And that’s going to be the aim for the winter."

As a driver who has fought for his future in the sport more times than he cares to remember, Albon is now firmly entrenched at Williams.

And his newfound stability has instilled him with a sense of responsibility regarding finding the right direction in which to develop the Grove-based outfit's car.

"My focus a lot of the time was really about surviving in F1 or focusing on that kind of performance side on my side," he explained.

"Whereas now that I have that kind of stability and focus into the future, a lot of it is now turning its attention more to, OK, how do we bring this forward with the team? Where does the development need to go?

"Of course, I’ve got a new teammate as well. I want us both to work together to speed up the development, and to do that, you need to get Logan [Sargeant] also up to speed in terms of his development to be able to give feedback and push in the areas that we need to push.

"Two people pushing for the same thing, that really builds synergy. Teams start to have a good dynamic where you’re all pushing for the same thing."

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