Williams "on par with Ferrari and Aston Martin" at Zandvoort

After matching his career-best qualifying end result, Williams’ Alexander Albon transformed fourth on the grid into eighth in Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix.

It was Albon’s fourth factors end of 2023, and joint second-best end result since becoming a member of Williams final 12 months. He achieved it regardless of staying out on slick tyres by way of an early downpour and dropping to fifteenth. At that second Albon thought his probability of scoring factors was over, however admitted “we actually caught to our weapons” on technique and it paid off.

Whereas some drivers had pitted twice by lap 10, which helped Albon recuperate 4 locations, he didn’t change tyres till lap 44 of 72 when he got here in from sixth to swap his ageing comfortable compound tyres for a set of mediums. However extra heavy rain prompted Albon to pit from third on lap 61 and change to intermediate tyres which he ran to the end.

“I believe we had been on par with the Astons and Ferraris this weekend,” he reckoned. “We did that first stint and in the entire stint we perhaps misplaced two seconds to the Aston and the Ferrari in entrance of us. And we had been on 15-lap, 10-lap older tyres than they had been.”

Albon was 16.8 seconds behind Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso – who completed second – after the latter switched again to slicks on lap 11, and the hole had lowered earlier than the Security Automobile got here out on lap 16. Following the restart, it grew by 9.386s over 21 laps earlier than Albon pitted.

Carlos Sainz Jnr, the Ferrari driver in entrance of Albon, made his second cease on lap 11 and elevated his hole over the Williams by 0.666s earlier than the Security Automobile appeared, then after the lap 22 restart pulled away by 2.12s earlier than pitting on lap 41.

Albon stated his “mammoth stint” on comfortable tyres is just potential “when the automotive’s good, and the automotive was very sturdy this weekend”.

Advert | Change into a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

“It was very straightforward to regulate the entrance degradation, the rear deg, simply with instruments and driving. I used to be all the time capable of shift the stability the place I wanted it to be. Then we placed on the mediums after which we had been making our means up the order.”

He was in sixth throughout his second stint and considering “that is good” earlier than he was knowledgeable extra rain was on its means. Williams waited earlier than pitting once more, and Albon thought he had timed it nicely till the rain meant he “was crawling within the final 4 corners”. That allowed McLaren’s Lando Norris and Mercedes’ George Russell to get forward of him.

“It occurs,” stated Albon. “It’s one among them issues the place it appears like we completed as we speak barely disenchanted that we didn’t end sixth, however we nonetheless completed eighth, it’s nonetheless a tremendous end result for us.

“We’ve been right here on tempo this weekend, there’s no mistake about it. It’s been our strongest weekend, it’s the most effective I’ve felt within the automotive in my time at Williams and there’s so many positives to take from right here.”

He added: “We had been very sturdy and we overtook a Mercedes. In fact we had a tyre benefit, however to overhaul a automotive round this monitor you want a very good second-and-a-half tempo benefit to have the ability to do it, and we did it. It offers me loads of confidence going into Monza [this weekend].

“On the similar time, it confuses me somewhat bit. We did a few set-up issues this weekend which works, however I believe they solely work in high-downforce circuits. I don’t suppose you will get away with them in low-downforce tracks. So it will likely be fascinating. We’ll take some learnings from this weekend and see what occurs in Monza.”

Williams scored at Spa-Francorchamps and Monza the final two years, accounting for 4 of the 9 grands prix which they scored in these two seasons. However they didn’t rating at Spa final month regardless of their straight-line velocity benefit irritating rivals.

Bringing the F1 information from the supply

RaceFans strives to deliver its readers information immediately from the important thing gamers in System 1. We’re ready to do that thanks partly to the beneficiant backing of our RaceFans Supporters.

By contributing 1 monthly or 12 per 12 months (or the equal in different currencies) you may assist cowl the prices concerned in producing authentic journalism: Travelling, writing, creating, internet hosting, contacting and creating.

We now have been proudly supported by our readers for over 10 years. For those who get pleasure from our impartial protection, please think about changing into a RaceFans Supporter as we speak. As a bonus, all our Supporters also can browse the location ad-free. Join or discover out extra through the hyperlinks beneath:

Advert | Change into a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free