Alex Albon spoke about managing expectations going into this weekend, aware of the excitement surrounding Williams at Monza. The FW45 shows reasonable performance across most tracks, but its top speed makes it very competitive at a high-speed circuit.
The 27-year-old finished an impressive 8th place last weekend, overcoming sub-optical strategy at a track not necessarily suited to the FW45.
Albon will start in 6th place at the Italian GP, putting him in a good position to compete for the team’s best result in 2023.
However, something that should be noted before the 53 laps of Sunday’s race is tyre degradation. In Belgium, a circuit where Williams was also expected to perform well, poor tyre management proved costly.
This situation could again repeat itself, with Alex Albon identifying tyre conservation as an issue all weekend.
Following Williams’ best qualifying result in Monza for six years, the F1 podium-finisher offered his perspective:
“We came into Monza hoping to get into Q3, so P6 is great!
“We have a great car, and quick cars are ahead of us in terms of race pace, so in that sense, it’s fine.
“If we can hold position against the Astons and the McLarens, I’ll be pretty happy.
“The car has been feeling good, and until Qualifying, we’ve been making changes to the car every session as we struggled to dial it in a little bit. But then everything came together.
“We knew this track was going to suit us, but we need to use these weekends to pull further ahead in the Constructors’, so let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”
James Vowles’ team is comfortably 7th in the standings, a position they deserve in 2023.
The British team is competing for points on a regular basis, leapfrogging rivals Haas, Alfa Romeo and AlphaTauri in terms of development.
Looking ahead, Williams will focus on optimising their results and preparing for next season’s car.
Author: Jaden Diaz-Ndisang
