Alex Albon's weekend at the Dutch Grand Prix was arguably a story of missed opportunities, ending in disappointment but not without a glimmer of hope for the Williams charger.
Albon produced an impressive effort in qualifying, reaching Q3 and clocking in with the eighth fastest lap which offered the Anglo-Thai racer a solid opportunity for points on Sunday.
Unfortunately, Albon’s upbeat demeanor was short-lived. The Williams driver was eventually excluded from qualifying after post-session scrutineering revealed that the FW15’s floor was too wide, a technical infringement that dropped him to the back of the grid in 18th position.
A top ten finish suddenly became a very tall order for Albon. In an attempt to claw back some ground, he opted for a bold medium-hard-medium two-stop strategy.
Williams then pitted him early in a bid to undercut rivals and later switched its driver to fresh medium tyres, aiming to attack those on much older hard rubber. Unfortunately, the strategy didn't pay off as planned.
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"We were trying to do a comeback, in some ways, trying to make up for, obviously, the unfortunate result yesterday," Albon explained after the race.
"We gave it a go, we tried a different strategy, tried to do stuff other cars weren’t doing. We got the undercut on a few cars, then at the same time got stuck behind a lot of cars as well, during the stint, so we never really showed any true pace.
“That was pretty much the race. It was a bit disappointing, obviously."
To make matters worse, Alpine – Williams’ direct rival in the Constructors’ championship – outscored the Grove-based outfit for the second race in succession thanks to Pierre Gasly’s run to P9.
Albon ultimately crossed the finish line in 14th place, a position that didn’t reflect the potential speed he felt in the FW46.
“The silver lining from the weekend is the car is quick,” he said.
“I think even in moments in the race when I had clean air, the pace was strong, but I didn’t have many clean laps in the race.
“It bodes well for Monza, a track that we’re normally pretty strong at. I’ll be interested to see if we’re still strong this year.”
Williams sporting director Sven Smeets agreed that the British outfit should be facing a much better weekend at Monza.
“A frustrating weekend for the team but we are looking forward to Monza as the new package has shown a good step in performance and should suit the car,” commented the Belgian.
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