Williams are one of the most historic teams in Formula 1, with their success dating back decades, however now instead of competing for titles, the team are struggling to not finish bottom of the championship every year.
The team have made progress in recent times however, with the results in the latter stages of George Russell’s time with the team becoming impressive, and Alex Albon this season seems to picked up where Russell left off.
Albon had anticipated a difficult weekend in Mexico for the team, with the car expected to struggle in the high altitude conditions, but he ended up having a successful race by all accounts, finishing in P12 despite starting with only his teammate Nicholas Latifi behind him at the end of the first lap.
“It was a tricky start; we had a technical issue getting off the line, so we dropped down to 19th and then we made our way through,” he described.
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“Most of the cars we overtook on track, or we did it in the pit stops, and we got to 12th.”
George Russell was nicknamed ‘Mr Saturday’ last season, with the then Williams driver impressing in qualifying sessions before dropping back in the race.
Albon has claimed that the team have made progress since then, evening out their performances over the race weekend, rather than excelling in only one or two aspects.
“I think last year the team was maybe a little bit stronger in qualifying than the race. This year it’s a bit 50:50; sometimes we get the qualifying right, sometimes we get the race right. It’s a bit of a moving board,” he said.
“I think if you look at where we were at the start of the year, and where we are now, we generally really understand the car’s weaknesses, we get on top of them and we maximise the weekends.
“It puts us in a good place for development next year, because we understand the areas we need to work on.”
Sadly for his teammate, Latifi is not seeing the improvements in the team, often keeping himself company at the back of the grid.
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The Canadian was expected to come into his own this year, stepping out of the shadow of George Russell who was assumed to have been overperforming in last year’s car.
It now appears that Latifi is unfortunately not up to the required standard, being outclassed by a different teammate last year, and he is now confirmed to be leaving the team at the end of the season.
Latifi finished last in Mexico, which has become a common sight this year, describing the race as a “very lonely and useless afternoon.”