Alex Albon admits he doesn’t know why Williams is so competitive at the British Grand Prix after finishing in the top three in both practice sessions on Friday.
Williams brought a significant upgrade to Canada, where Albon finished seventh, and was similarly competitive in Austria but missed out on points over the sprint weekend. Expecting Silverstone to be less suited to the car than the previous two venues, Williams impressed with Albon third in each practice session — 0.2s off Max Verstappen — and Logan Sargeant backing him up in fifth place in FP2.
“We don’t (know) either, so … I’d be lying to say it’s not surprising,” Albon said. “Obviously we’re not doing anything special. It’s strange, because, without sounding pessimistic, it doesn’t feel too great out there for us — but it clearly must feel worse for the others.
“I think the wind out there today is a real pain — it really separates the balance of the car — but we seem to be coping with it much better than anyone else. We’ve also got the upgrade package; what we’ve seen has been a bit better for high-speed corners than low-speed — Austria was kind of a low-speed track. Maybe it’s partly due to that, but like I said, it’s a bit of a question mark.
“Our long-run pace was also strong on the hard tire. We’ve got to keep grounded and just focus on ourselves. A bit of a strange one to finish the lap and see yourself in the top three.”
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Albon says the challenge for Williams will be not trying too hard to chase a better setup when the current compromise appears to be the most competitive option, even if it doesn’t feel good behind the wheel.
“Truthfully if you talk about balance, every corner is different here because the wind is hitting the car in different ways, so you get what you call a very disconnected car. There’s a lot you can do, but it’s very hard. Let’s say Turn 3 is oversteer, Turn 4 is understeer — you can’t really attack those corners and do setup work because they’re the same corner speeds and you’re just getting a headwind or a tailwind.
“It’s all about compromise at this circuit. So we’re learning, but at the same time it’s all about optimizing for these kinds of conditions. Again, we’ve just got to keep grounded, as it’s a bit surprising for us. We’ll take it and see what happens tomorrow.”