Alexander Albon admitted being frustrated to see such a compact field and still not having the best FW46, even though he knows further updates will arrive later in the season.
Despite the frustration, which is normal for a driver when he is not winning every race, Albon acknowledged that due to the delays Williams had during the winter break, it is now normal to lack a bit of pace as some upgrades have been delayed, too.
When asked whether he supports the team’s decision to work on the long-term rather than short-term, Albon immediately said: “Long term, of course, it’s worth it, and it’s the right thing to do, and we’re never going to be on top if we don’t make big changes, and we just focus on short-term changes. So I totally support it.
“The car was delayed and as a consequence, the upgrades are delayed as well. So, there are pieces that should be on the car but are going to have to wait. Hopefully, we can enjoy more success later in the season.
“With the delays we had, we could be in a much better position. But it’s a good thing in a way because it shows that we just have to wait a bit longer to get more performance out of the car.”
Speaking about his performance in qualifying, the Thai driver said that P15 was where he thought he would end up. A few positions ahead would have been “a reward”.
“I think P15 is where we kind of hoped we would be. It’s a mixed feeling because I think we did a good job of extracting the most out of the car, and I’m pretty happy with the lap I delivered.”
Finally, he said that Williams still needs to address a few issues like tire degradation or lack of load. However, he knows these are problems the British outfit knows can be fixed.
“We are using the tires too much. It’s not just the setup, it’s a bit of everything. We miss a bit of load, but these are things we know we can fix.
“We are much more aligned now, so we are on the upper hand, but not on top. Our race pace has improved generally, but the problem is that everyone improved. It’s almost frustrating because you made a massive step, but so did the others.”