A superb fifth place for Alex Albon in Imola generated mixed emotions for the Williams Formula 1 driver.
On the one hand it was a great result and represented a two-place gain on his starting spot, but on the other he knew that fourth place was in his grasp until the closing laps.
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An aggressive defence from Charles Leclerc as Albon tried to take it sent him through the gravel, and while the Monegasque driver later handed a spot back, both men had been passed during the incident by Lewis Hamilton.
Nevertheless it was a strong race for Albon, who was convinced that he could make a one-stop work while rivals couldn’t before the VSC and safety car periods handed him two cheap stops.
In contrast team mate Carlos Sainz, who started a place ahead, lost out by pitting before life was made easier for those who waited until the VSC.
“Each way you look at it, P4 was possible today,” said Albon when I asked about his race. “If the safety car didn’t come out at the end, that was a P4. If you take the Charles incident, that was also a P4.
“I’m not going to say I’m disappointed with P5, and honestly, when I look at the battle with Charles, I would have done the same in his position. I don’t think he did anything that crazy. It’s just someone trying to hold their position.
“And obviously, I just lost out to Lewis. Just thinking about it, could I have done something better, been a bit more patient with Charles and see if I could get him a little bit later.
“But at that point in the race, honestly, I was feeling so good. I thought Oscar’s up ahead on worn tyres, I can go after him and maybe get a P3. Still very happy with the race.”
Albon was confident from that start that his strategy was going to play out successfully.
“I think being the car behind at the start of the race, I didn’t need to push, and I just waited. George degged quite a lot at the beginning, and he kind of backed everyone up a little bit, and I could see all the cars in front was sliding around a lot, so I was just staying put.
“I knew that the amount that George was sliding, there were going to be cars in front who would have to convert to a two-stop. And so once they all started to drop in, I thought, okay, maybe I can extend this stint. I didn’t expect to fully be able to pull off the one-stop, but we were going to quite successfully.”
He added: “Even in pure pace, we were running P4/P5 today, so we were able to extend the first stint very strongly. And that kind of set us up for the whole for the whole race
“The VSC obviously played in our favour, but at the same time, everyone else was pretty much stuck on a two-stop. We were pretty comfortable in the one-stop, so we were looking really good.”
The Williams has now been competitive at every circuit, albeit some more than others, and between them Albon and Sainz have scored points at every race except Bahrain, where Sainz lost out in a collision with Yuki Tsunoda.
Albon admits that even he has been surprised by the pace of the car.
“Yeah, I have been,” he said. “Maybe I’m more pessimistic. I think James [Vowles] was a bit more optimistic about it. In the simulator it’s been better, when I think about all the work we’ve been doing last year.
“What’s been interesting is a lot of the balance has come together a lot more. There’s clearly a downforce gain, but there’s also a drivability/balance gain, which has made it easier to drive better, gives you more confidence. You’re less limited in terms of setup with what you can do with a car.
“I’ve said it a few times about being boxed with a car and only certain tracks suiting us. We’ve gone to so many different tracks down, and we’ve been in the points pretty much every single time, apart from once. So it’s working well, and that’s a good sign of a good DNA with the car.”
The risk is that Williams loses out in the development race by switching to 2026 earlier than rivals.
“We’ve seen a lot of teams this weekend bringing upgrades. They’re definitely caught up, but we’re still holding our own. It’s not like they’ve overtaken us convincingly.
“So far, so good, but they are going to learn their upgrades, and they might eventually get a bit a bit tighter. But for now, I’m very happy.”
Attention now turns to Monaco, where everyone is using the C6 that proved so tricky to optimise last weekend.
“That C6 has been a bit of a weird tyre, and you’ve seen it in Imola, being slower than the C5. I think it should obviously suit Monaco better than it has Imola. I think it will work better.
“Personally, speaking, I haven’t really clicked with the C6 yet. I need to understand it a bit better. I’ll do a bit of work over the next few days to come back a bit stronger.”
Adam Cooper F1 