Alexander Albon was a bit optimistic to do better in F1 Hungarian GP with updates, but was left disappointed, as Carlos Sainz didn’t expect much.
After a bad qualifying for Williams’ Albon in F1 Hungarian GP at Hungaroring, the Thai started off well in the grand prix, making up places in the first few laps. But it eventually ended up with ‘nothing to show for the efforts’, as he was stuck in the DRS train for long.
He also had teammate Sainz around him, even though he started well ahead of the Thai. Usually, Hungaroring is a difficult track for Williams to master and it continued to be the same this year as well. Albon was a bit optimistic after the updates they put in, but he was left disappointed.
He feels the qualifying letdown was key in having a bad outing in the grand prix. He couldn’t figure out the tyre as much Sainz did. “Had a decent start, it is the first time that I had it all year, so made up couple of positions after starting on soft tyre,” said Albon to media. “It ran better than I thought it would, we were looking competitive.
“We had a great pit stop and undercut the Haas and then we don’t know how its ended. I think Carlos came out in front of me, I was on the mediums, which degged pretty poorly and then the hards was actually better race tyre. I don’t know it is was actually just me or everyone, but hards was a lot better than medium. But I got stuck in the DRS train in the middle of the race, there you go, so not much to say.
“I think, as a weekend go, a bit disappointed, I went in, Hungary with the updates, a bit more optimistic, but the pace level we showed this weekend, we had a trouble with tyres in qualifying and now that we look at it and in the race, we honestly didn’t have the pace. The tyres are the king, in quali, it caught me out. It is on me because Carlos could figure it out and I didn’t.
“But I found new tyres as that hide issues and in the long run it exposed us and ended up with poor pace. It is not just tyres, the car’s is not quite there,” summed up Albon. Teammate Sainz ran decently until a collision with Pierre Gasly, who was handed a time penalty. He reckoned any strategy wouldn’t have worked for Williams because it was down to car performance than out of place qualifying.
“We were fighting for position and he missed the braking in Turn 2 and took me out quite badly, I think he got a 10s time penalty, but we were fighting for 13th and 14th, it cost be probably P13 in the race but it is where we would have deserved,” said Sainz to media. “We were on a one stop, we wouldn’t have finished higher than P12, so it is not like one or two stops would have changed our lives.
“Ultimately it is a difficult track to pass and if races are one stop, it is not like you are going to overtake without the tyre delta, so it was just that we finished more or less where we started, we tried something different starting on soft, we probably were a bit optimistic that we could have at one point do one stop from soft to hard but we didn’t got that way and switched to two stops which brought us back to P13 and that’s what we deserved.”
