Alex Albon has revealed how close Williams came to being in “crisis mode” prior to him scoring the team’s best result for almost two years.
Albon finished seventh on merit in the Canadian Grand Prix for what was also his personal best performance since placing third with Red Bull in Bahrain late in the Covid-hit 2020 campaign.
Since joining Williams at the start of last season after being relegated to the role of reserve at Red Bull in 2021, the Thai-British driver has endured considerable struggle.
A change of management over the winter, with James Vowles taking over as team principal, has sparked an upward vibe that culminated in Albon’s result at Montréal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Running upgrades on his FW45 only due to the race to get them to the circuit, Albon explained the sacrifice that has gone on behind the scenes.
“Honestly, the car feels pretty similar to pre-upgrade, but we know it’s just got more downforce everywhere,” he said.
“It’s hard to actually tell you kind of how it feels because we’ve just come from Barcelona, a track that’s an ice rink, fast.
“Then we come to Canada, it’s bumpy, low speed, chicanes everywhere, but when you compare ourselves to pre-Barcelona, we’ve clearly made a big step forward.
“Part of that is just the circuit suiting us but also, everyone’s done such an amazing job.
“Two weeks ago, we were at the factory, I was with James, and I don’t want to call it crisis mode, but we were so low on parts.
“We actually fast-forwarded the upgrade because there was no point building on the old car again. It was more about going to the new one.
“We went to have a meeting with composites, with everyone, and they had to sacrifice all their weekends, work day and night to get this car ready. We changed the PU, we put everything into the weekend.
“Actually, it felt like a bit of pressure coming into the weekend because I was like ‘My God, they’re really putting everything into it, and it’s all on my car’.”
The six points from Albon lifted Williams off the foot of the constructors’ championship, leapfrogging AlphaTauri and to within two points of seventh-placed Alfa Romeo and one behind Haas in eighth.
With those four teams at this stage seemingly squabbling over the bottom four places in the standings, and with the millions on the line in prize money, Albon’s performance could be crucial for Williams come the end of the season.
Detailing the difficulties in scoring such a result given the calibre and reliability at the front of the field, he added: “It’s tricky now because you’ve basically got an Aston Martin within the top four.
“You’ve got these (top) eight positions, that I don’t want to say they are cemented every weekend, but they are very hard to break.
“Then it’s the battle for ninth and 10th, and when you look at ninth and 10th, it’s now likely an Alpine, and it’s hard to break.
“So to be best of the rest, plus one, in that seventh place, is amazing. We really needed those points.”
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