Alexander Albon admitted that the new FW46 feels “different” and “improved” in many areas after having driven it in the simulator.
The 2023 season was positive for Williams, which achieved P7 in the standings. Many times in which the team scored points it was thanks to Albon’s great driving abilities, as the car lacked speed compared to other rivals.
Despite that, the British outfit has been working in the right direction in the past years, and it is coming back from a very difficult period. The new goal for the upcoming season is to score points even more consistently and design a car that adapts to as many tracks as possible.
Williams presented its 2024 challenger on February 5th, and Albon admitted that driving the new car requires a different driving style, meaning that many things changed.
“Very different – more than anything, different feeling, so a different driving style [is needed]. I don’t want to speak too soon, but the FW45 always had some consistent limitations with the car, especially when we went to tracks like Monaco or Barcelona they were highlighted.
“Low speed was always a big issue for us, braking was always a big issue for us, but also high-speed, long corners were difficult for us.
“Definitely, in the simulator you can see that these areas have improved, but at the same time that comes with quite a different driving style. When we hit the track, you can start to try to understand it and pick it apart.”
Albon also added that Williams sacrificed some time intended to develop the FW45 to focus more on the 2024 challenger and try something different, more aggressive.
“This year especially, we’ve sacrificed a little bit of development time on the FW45 to focus on the FW46, shorten the amount of upgrades we had on the car, to make sure that we tried to attack this car a little bit more aggressively and start to change the DNA of the car. That’s the plan. Let’s see if it happens.”