Alex Albon has insisted he’s “having fun with the problem” of taking Williams again to the highest of F1.
Williams endured a trickier 2024 F1 marketing campaign, slipping again to ninth within the constructors’ championship.
Whereas on stability, Williams have been firmly within the midfield on the majority of the races, the 2024 challenger lacked the peakiness of its predecessor.
Williams have been additionally hampered by quite a few main shunts all through the season, leading to an absence of spare elements – or reverting to older spec upgrades.
Nonetheless, the long run stays shiny for Williams and Albon below James Vowles’ management.
2025 will see the arrival of Carlos Sainz from Ferrari, whereas Vowles has beforehand outlined Williams’ ambition to propel themselves up the order for the brand new laws.
For Albon, his inventory has risen since leaving Crimson Bull on the finish of 2020.
He dismantled Nicholas Latifi in George Russell-like vogue and Logan Sargeant wasn’t a risk throughout his time with the staff.
Nonetheless, the arrival of Franco Colapinto posed extra questions of Albon, crucially forward of Sainz’s arrival.
The Thai driver is a key cog within the Williams machine and that’s a problem he’s continues to relish.
Talking completely to Crash.web earlier this 12 months, Albon – who attracted curiosity from the likes of Ferrari and Crimson Bull – dismissed the notion he’s annoyed by Williams’ competitiveness and vowed to go away “any stone unturned”.
“I see it extra as if I consider on this undertaking and for me to commit so a few years to the staff is a dedication,” Albon stated.
“It’s a part of my responsibility as nicely to make it work. I really feel like I’m having fun with the problem. I really feel like we now have a giant journey forward of us. If I’m pondering of it extra just like the staff shouldn’t be doing what I can do and all that sort of factor, I believe it’s the flawed mindset.
“In the long run it must be extra what’s my function on this and I gained’t depart any stone unturned to try to get each little proportion of efficiency out of the automotive and ensure we’re on this journey.”
Outcomes-wise, 2024 has been a step again for Williams.
In 2023, they secured seventh within the constructors’ championship – their finest end in six years.
Nonetheless, a part of the explanation for his or her decline in total outcomes has been a deliberate shift in making the Williams automotive carry out throughout quite a lot of circuit sorts, not simply low downforce ones like Silverstone and Monza.
Albon believes the ache of this variation will reward the staff long run.
“It’s true. We all know that as a staff if we need to be at the perfect of our stage, it’s no good having a peaky automotive,” he added. “A peaky automotive is nice within the again area once you’re in a position to rating on two or three races.
“That’s usually sufficient to get P8 or P9 over P10 within the championship. We all know we must be extra constant and adaptable on completely different circuits. We’ve positively taken a step down by way of straight-line velocity in comparison with our rivals however I additionally suppose a variety of the groups have come in the direction of us.
“It’s all coming into the center. Proper now in Components 1, all 10 groups driver-wise are very related which will likely be fairly attention-grabbing.”
