Alex Albon believes the past F1 season was his strongest in Formula 1 despite falling a long way short of his biggest points haul.
Albon scored 27 points and finished 13th in the drivers’ standings, with his total the key differentiator as to why Williams secured seventh position in the constructors’ championship.
In his rookie season in 2019, however, in which he spent half a year at Toro Rosso before switching over to Red Bull, Albon was eighth with 92 points, before a full season with Red Bull the following year saw him finish seventh with 105 points.
Albon, though, feels given the machinery he had to work with, and the fact it was not upgraded over the second half of the campaign, yet delivered Williams its best constructors’ championship finish for six years, ranks higher than his time with the Red Bull family.
“I’m very proud of my performance,” said Albon. “I’m not the most arrogant person, I would say, but I will give myself credit.
“I feel like I’ve had a very strong season, I feel like most of my races haven’t been simple. They’ve been races where we’ve been fighting, fighting, fighting the whole time.
“But I enjoy it. I feel like that’s the environment I thrive in. For me, it’s been my strongest year in Formula 1, and the connection I have with the team has helped that.
“I feel that’s where we’ve been able to execute everything, the races we’ve done so well in.”
Taking a broad view, it would appear Williams has been inconsistent over the year, with Albon producing great drives and results at certain circuits followed by poor performances at others.
The Thai-British driver insists that is due to the vagaries of the car.
Assessing his season overall, Albon said: “It’s strange because a lot of people think we were very inconsistent, but I think the execution of each weekend was very consistent. The car itself was quite inconsistent.
“So Monza, (Las) Vegas-type tracks go well for us. We know cold tracks go well for us. We know hot tracks don’t work for us, we know windy tracks don’t work for us, we know tight tracks don’t work for us, so our car does have its moments.
“One of our biggest focuses next year is to stop these weaknesses in our car.
“But the execution was very strong. We made the most of our opportunities. That’s why I believe we were able to get P7.
“When we the car to do it, we’ve made sure we’ve scored the points. Others have either had a blunder with strategy, or whatever it may have been, and just missed out on points.”
Under the leadership of James Vowles, and with Pat Fry joining the team as chief technical officer, Albon is confident of progress for 2024
“Pat’s getting up to speed very quickly,” said Albon. “I feel like he’s understanding the areas where we need to improve as well. He will offer that guidance and mentorship to the team, so I’m very excited to have him on board.
“We sacrificed a lot this year to focus on next year’s car. We didn’t upgrade for much longer than our rivals. That can only be a good thing, I think. We did the bare minimum to finish P7, and now we’re eyes on to next year.”
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