Alexander Albon doesn’t see Williams to have a jump like Haas did it in 2022 F1 season as he is confident of a better show still.
After shelving the 2021 F1 season, Haas had a much better start to the 2022 campaign under new regulation. They were in points regularly and even though they slowed by the end of the season, they still did better than Williams who were in a similar boat.
With a year in their bag, Williams is still looking to make the cut in the group of midfield. Having launched the FW45 – mostly the livery – the team is calling it a evolution of FW44. However, they are being cautious of a big jump straight up.
Albon sees them in a better position than 2022, but he doesn’t expects a Haas-like jump. It’s hard to say,” he said. ”I would say we’re definitely in a better position than we were at the end of last year. I don’t know how that translates to the circuit, I don’t know how big of a step everyone else is going to make, but I think only time will tell.
“We’re in a better place, but it’s hard to say really where we stand. Naturally I’m confident about where we need to go. The main difference from this year to last year is all that time, me learning the culture and the way they do things. That’s already been done, so we start in Bahrain on the front step and we’ll be able to fast-track our development and our progress through winter testing and that should naturally put us in a better position this year.
“I’d say at the start of the year I don’t think it’ll be something like a Haas where they come out of the blocks and were straight away very competitive. We have changed quite a lot of the car in terms of its philosophy and the areas we’re trying to change, through a corner, the behaviour of the car, that might take a bit of time to understand and optimise,” summed up Albon.
While Williams will have a shakedown in Silverstone where the ‘real’ FW45 will be seen, Albon is already looking towards Bahrain and the 2023 season where he hopes the team can bring more than one update which is significant for their campaign.
“In terms of upgrades last year we only really had one significant one. Hopefully we’ll be able to bring out possibly smaller, more significant ones,” said Albon. “Let’s see how it is in Bahrain and hopefully be more efficient and effective with our upgrades. What I’m trying to say is, I don’t think we’re going to come out of the blocks firing but we just need to be smart.”
Here’s Dave Robson on Williams FW45
Here’s Williams’ 2023 livery
Here’s Jack Aitken on bidding F1/Williams goodbye
Here’s James Vowles on what he can do to take Williams forward
Here’s Jamie Chadwick sticking with Williams academy
Here’s James Vowles and Toto Wolff on the Williams move
