Alex Albon, Williams Formula 1 driver, opened up about the challenges he faced with the team’s 2024 season car, which has been significantly overweight since its launch.
Williams started the 2024 season on the back foot, as their launch car was notably overweight due to delays in production. Despite efforts to trim the excess weight—managing to shed 14kg in the off-season—the FW46 model still lagged behind, costing the team four to five-tenths of a second per lap.
Albon received a revised floor and some other parts from the Imola race onward, which helped reduce the weight on his side of the garage. However, his teammate Logan Sargeant was still waiting for similar upgrades. Albon admitted it was tough to remain silent about the issue, especially when team boss James Vowles made the weight problem public in Imola. ‘It was hard because you guys were asking me what the difference was with last year’s car and I was telling you it’s better, but we were running around in P19 and P20,’ Albon said in Montreal. ‘I kind of had to bite my lip a little bit, but it was mostly down to it.’
Despite the improvements, Albon’s car remains significantly overweight, although recent tracks have not exposed this flaw as much. Albon scored Williams’s first points in Monaco by finishing ninth and was close to another top 10 finish in Canada before being taken out by Carlos Sainz’s spinning car.
‘We’re still overweight and by a good amount,’ Albon noted. ‘Monaco I think is the least sensitive to weight and Canada is the fourth least sensitive to weight, so good tracks.’ He expressed cautious optimism about the upcoming Spanish Grand Prix but underscored that Barcelona has historically been one of the worst circuits for Williams.
He hopes the new maximum downforce rear wing introduced in Monaco will provide some benefits, but he’s not expecting miracles. ‘Barcelona will just be about trying to optimise our car. It’s max downforce, which is similar to Monaco, so our big rear wing works quite well. It’s quite efficient,’ he explained. ‘I’m not expecting some magic switches [in the pecking order], I’m just hoping we’ve got a car that’s a bit more consistent.’
As Williams continues to battle the weight issues plaguing its 2024 FW46 car, all eyes will be on their performance in the upcoming races. While team upgrades hold some promise, it’s clear that the challenge of shedding those extra kilos remains a formidable one.
Source: Motorsport
