Albon pins hopes on upgrades for second half of season with Williams ‘digging deep’ to improve

Alex Albon is hopeful that Williams will be in position to unleash their first “proper upgrade” of 2024 shortly after the season resumes, explaining that the team have been on the “back foot” with their package so far.

Williams have scored just four points across the 14 races held to this point, which compares to the 21 amassed by the same stage last season – a return that leaves them ninth out of 10 teams in the constructors’ standings.

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Following a run to P12 in last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, which he finished on the tail of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, and just behind final points finishers Esteban Ocon (Alpine) and Daniel Ricciardo (RB), Albon gave an honest assessment of Williams’ position.

“I think just not quite the pace,” he reflected. “Esteban and Daniel were a little bit quicker than us. We had a good start, we got in a good position to begin with… I feel like just lacking a bit of pace.

“We haven’t had many, if any, upgrades this season so far, so we’ve been on the back foot. We’re pushing hard at the factory, everyone’s working really hard… Of course, there’s a bit of a break right now, but time will tell.

“If we can get our first proper upgrade on the car when we come back, I think we can fight for points a bit more regularly. But for now, I think P13, P12 was all we could have done today.”

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Asked to look back on the first half of the season as a whole, he continued: “Disappointing. I think we’ve been on the back foot from the very beginning. We were late with our car and we’ve been paying the price the whole season so far. That’s about it.

“We’re digging deep, I think we’ve got some good things in the future. At the same time, we’ve got some areas we need to work on. We’ll use this break to look and really focus on the development not just for this year but especially for next year.”

On the other side of the Williams garage, it was a tough weekend for Albon’s team mate, Logan Sargeant, who will be replaced by outgoing Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz for the 2025 season.

“It certainly wasn’t great,” said the American, after dropping out in Q1 and coming home 17th out of 18 finishers. “I feel like the hard [tyre] stint at the end was pretty solid, the two medium stints before that a bit more tricky.

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“In the second medium stint I was doing my best to hold people up behind, which was ultimately helping Alex ahead, and trying to do my best in that sense. I was happy with the pace on the hard tyre, so it is what it is.”

Looking ahead to the summer break, and speaking just before it was announced that Sainz will take his seat next year, Sargeant added: “Yeah, I just want to get out of here right now, and then figure it out.”