Alexander Albon reckons him doing well against Carlos Sainz is more of a validation for media than himself, as he notes on cooling issues faced by Williams.
For long, Albon has been looked down when he was racing against the likes of Logan Sargeant and Franco Colapinto at Williams. Many believed the Thai to be already having a superior hand over the rookies and his ultimate test lies against a far experienced campaigner.
When Sainz was announced to join Williams, the eyeballs shifted to how Albon will perform against a F1 race winner. And so far, the Thai has trounced the Spaniard. The former is eighth with 54 points after 14 rounds against the latter’s 16 points to be 16th in the drivers’ standings.
Of coruse, Sainz hasn’t had the best of lucks to start his Williams journey, but Albon has seemingly stepped up in his performance as well. When asked about proving the world, the Thai reckoned he didn’t need any validation for himself, but it was more of an eye opener for those watching.
He always had confidence in himself and never felt he had to prove his worth to the viewers and or Williams. “Yeah, maybe more validation to you than to me,” said Albon to media. “I feel like I’ve always had quite a strong time at Williams. I feel like I got comfortable pretty quickly. I learnt a lot from my time at Red Bull and then I just gained experience and I got stronger and stronger every year.
“This year looks like a standout year. I say it a lot, but I think the team have done a fantastic job to give me the car to be able to deliver the results. It seems to keep going at the moment. It feels like we’ve just had a good run of it. I’m comfortable in the car and I feel like the car is way more predictable to drive. It’s easier to drive on the limit.
“We’re not getting these snaps and things which I think last year you could see sometimes would put us in a wall and things like that. It builds confidence and then you can just exploit the car more and more. Once you’re really comfortable with the car, you can deliver good races, consistent races, which is what we’ve been doing this year,” summed up Albon.
The Thai faced a small dip in the last handful of races when a cooling issue crept in his car and it hurt him for multiple races until Belgium, where he managed to score again. Hungary was anyways difficult track for Williams, but the Thai sees momentum again on the side of the Anglo-British outfit.
They are still not on top of the cooling issue, but there is some fix for it to get through the 2025 F1 season without mega troubles with it. “It was a good momentum, for sure,” said Albon. “We needed it, because we obviously had a few tough races. It just puts everyone’s energy back at the factory, back here at the racetrack. We obviously saw a lot of our rivals putting on upgrades, and us falling back.
“So, it was a bit of a statement from us to firstly prove that when we do bring upgrades, they work, and then get a good points haul. I don’t think it will necessarily carry over to every race. But yeah, we were falling back, and it was good to get back. Cooling was not an issue in Spa-Francorchamps. It’s still ongoing [fix].
“You could say Silverstone and Spa, the classic tracks and the classic weather around them helped us. I think we’re definitely moving in the right direction. There’s still lap time that we’re leaving on the table, even around Silverstone and Spa with that weather. If we get the cooling correct, we can obviously tighten everything up and go faster still,” summed up Albon.
Here’s Carlos Sainz on short-term goals
Here’s Alexander Albon on balance of Williams F1 car
Here’s Carlos Sainz on philosophy change needed at Williams
