Alexander Albon already has a goal in mind for the upcoming F1 season. The British-Thai driver mainly hopes to be able to take on the fight with Alpine and to keep on the heels of the top teams. According to Albon, that goal should be increasingly within reach, because his Williams team has rigorously changed the 2024 car.
During the 2023 season, the British-Thai driver often managed to surprise and achieve good performances in the difficult Williams car. Albon even managed to finish P7 twice, in Canada and Italy, and thus secured the lion’s share of the points for Williams. The team ultimately managed to finish P7 in the championship, but according to Albon, his team now has a higher goal in mind.
“If you look at where we finished last year, in seventh place, I would say we were at our best in the lower midfield. And we were just able to keep AlphaTauri behind us,” Albon analyzes to Motorsport-Total. ‘But when you look at the gap to P6 and P5, that’s still quite a big jump considering how Alpine did, who themselves had quite a big gap to Aston Martin, McLaren and Mercedes. Then you are practically already in the top field. I want to fight in the wake of Alpine and be on the heels of the leading group,” the driver sets a clear goal.
Albon also believes that battling Alpine is a realistic goal for his team in 2024. “Realistically, we will not achieve podiums and victories this year. If we can finish in the points regularly, that would be great. I’m also very curious to see how we do on circuits where we weren’t good last year.’ The driver mentions the Monaco and Barcelona circuits as examples of races in which Williams performed less well, and is curious to see how good the Williams car will be on these race tracks this year.
Williams comes with a ‘more aggressive’ approach
What Albon already seems to know for sure is that the new Williams car is a lot better to drive than its predecessors. However, the problems posed by the FW45, including low-speed, braking and high-speed cornering problems, were not new in 2023. Williams therefore sacrificed some development time in 2023 to be able to take a more aggressive approach to the development of the 2024 car. Albon thinks that Williams ‘can really change the DNA of the car. That’s the plan. Let’s see if it works.’
