Albon confident Williams has long-term plans in place

It wasn't the best of starts for Williams, with an overweight car leaving Alex Albon to maintain the form he had shown last year. But he says everything is coming together for the team's long term prospects.

It took Williams eight races before they finally picked up their first championship points of 2024 with Albon finishing in ninth place in Monaco, a feat he repeated at Silverstone.

But the Thai driver admitted that the season had not gone according to plan, with the initial FW46 chassis markedly overweight making it impossible for Albon to extend his run of striking performances during Saturday qualifying.

"It's a real shame that at the start of the year, we were not on-weight where we should have been," Albon told Motorsport.com before the summer break. "We had an overweight car, that's been made public now.

"Our car should have been in the points consistently for the first few races and then we would have shuffled down to where we are now," he speculated. "When you put the team under that much work and do that many changes, it shows the cracks.

• Read also: Vowles compares Sainz’s journey in F1 to his own

"So we're obviously not where we want to be," Albon said. However he felt that Williams' performance over the first part of the season looked worse because of the strides and improvements made by their rivals on a tightly-packed grid.

"We've made a good step, but relative to the others maybe we're holding back a little bit," he suggested. "Truthfully I feel like that's testament to the other teams too. Haas has been the standout in the group.

"That midfield group has made such a huge step," he acknowledged, while insisting that this wasn't giving him cause for concern or despair. "It's not like I'm here with my head in my hands not understanding where it is.

I'm happy we're getting the foundations in place. I don't think without the changes we've made, I would ever see us as a team that can get out of this backfield battle.

"I feel like now at least we've got foundations that can bring us up," he asserted, adding that he had no regrets about signing a long term multi-year contract with team principal James Vowles to stay at Williams.

"I have been very much a part of the project," Albon confirmed. "James has brought me into it. He's very straight. He doesn't tell you things are better than they actually are, and I like that.

"Whenever something's not come to plan he tells me the areas that the team needs to work on. He tells me if there's anything I can do to help," Albon said. "He's the right man for the job. I believe in him and feel like we've got the right people."

That includes the recruitment of Carlos Sainz as his team mate for 2025 and beyond. But while this big name signing raised expectations, Albon certainly isn't underestimating just how long term the Williams project is.

"If I am being totally honest, I don't see us being in position to fight for wins and titles for a while," he said, acknowledging that the immediate aim is "to do steps where we start nipping in and getting podiums and what-not."

"Of course we're going through a tougher time of it now," he admitted. "I believe that 2026 would be difficult, but winning in '27 would be much more realistic.

"We've got great investment, and we're recruiting very aggressively, but we don't need any encouragement," he said. "That drive and that motivation in the team is really enjoyable to be part of."

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