Alex Albon believes that Williams’ 2024 campaign in F1 was a story of promise overshadowed by missed opportunities in the early part of the season.
Williams concluded its year last weekend in Abu Dhabi a somewhat underwhelming ninth in F1’s Constructors’ Championship, 29 points behind eight-placed team Visa Cash App RB.
Unfortunately, despite moments of brilliance, the team ended the season much as it had begun: enduring a significant run of pointless races plagued by competitive struggles and costly missteps.
Reflecting on the season, Albon was candid in his assessment of where things went wrong.
“My general opinion is a feeling of a little bit of a missed opportunity,” he admitted.
The Thai-British driver highlighted the root cause of their underperformance: a slow start to the season caused by an overweight car that left Williams playing catch-up from the outset.
“It’s easy to focus on the latter end of the season and the crashes, but realistically we started with an overweight car. We should have scored many more points at the beginning of the year,” Albon explained.
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This predicament forced Williams into a reactive position, spending the first half of the year trying to slim down their FW46, leaving little room for significant upgrades.
As other teams surged ahead, Williams managed only one major upgrade in the second half of the season – a package that brought a brief uptick in form before rivals caught up.
“We had one upgrade, which was a good upgrade, and we kind of had a middle part of the season that was respectable,” the Anglo-Thai racer added.
“The plan was always to focus on next year early and at that point a lot of teams overtook us.
“So, if we had started off a bit stronger, like what the Astons did, had a peakier beginning and trailed off at the end, we would still have had a solid season, but we didn’t.”
Instead, Williams enjoyed its best period in the latter part of the summer as F1 entered the back half of 2024.
“I think our best period was in that middle of the season; Monza, Baku, kind of Singapore, that was where our car was performing well, and now everyone’s kind of caught up,” he said.
However, the latter half of the season brought its own setbacks. From crashes to reliability issues, the team struggled to maintain momentum.
The Sao Paulo Grand Prix proved particularly costly, with both Albon and rookie teammate Franco Colapinto suffering crashes that strained the team’s resources.
Albon acknowledged the difficulties but reiterated that the true missed opportunity lay in their inability to capitalize on the early season.
“We’ve also just had a lot of bad luck and a lot of issues, a lot of crashes to be fair,” the 28-year-old explained.
“But in many ways, I feel like it’s more of a missed opportunity at the beginning of the year than anything else.”
The season also saw significant changes within the team. Logan Sargeant’s struggles in the first half of the year led to his replacement by Colapinto after Monza.
While Colapinto impressed in his early races, a spate of accidents underlined the team’s ongoing challenges.
Despite these hurdles, Williams is already looking ahead to the future, with team principal James Vowles spearheading a long-term plan to restore the team’s competitiveness.
Albon expressed confidence in Vowles’ leadership, even as he acknowledged the slower-than-hoped progress.
“In the end, I’m not too upset. I’m not here for short-term success. I’m here for the long term, so I’m happy with it,” he said.
“Team principals can talk, but I think it’s quite obvious the setbacks we’ve had this year. We’ve been quite public about it, and I think James is very honest with where we are, showing you the direction and the steps back that we’re having to make in some places to get into a better place for the future.”
Albon also praised Vowles’ open and transparent leadership style.
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