Alex Albon has revealed that Williams 2024 Formula 1 is “very different” to its predecessor and has forced him to adapt his driving style compared to previous years.
Williams produced its strongest campaign since 2017 last term, accumulating 28 points – of which Albon scored all but one – to clinch seventh place in the championship.
Despite that evident progress, Albon reiterated throughout the 2023 season that the team is being held back by inherent flaws embedded within all of its recent creations.
Having strived to address those negative characteristics with a more rounded package in 2024, Albon admits Williams’ latest car has required him to also make adjustments.
When asked how much of a step there was between the two cars in the sim, Albon said: “Very different, more than anything, different feeling, so different driving style applied.
“I think that, let’s see, obviously, I don’t want to speak too soon, but the [FW]45 always had some consistent limitations with the car, especially when we went to tracks like Monaco or Barcelona, they were highlighted.
“Low speed was always a big issue for us, braking was always a big issue for us, but also high speed, long corners were difficult for us.”
“Definitely in the simulator you can see that these areas have improved, but at the same time that comes with quite a different driving style.
“I think really until you hit the track you can really start to try to understand it and pick it apart.”
While Albon will not get the opportunity to sample the FW46 until a shakedown in Bahrain before pre-season testing, he has been driving a sim model since last April.
Although the Anglo-Thai driver asserts that he’s contributed to this car’s development, he points out that such limitations had been noted even prior to his arrival in 2022.
Pressed on whether the shift was based on his feedback, Albon replied: “Yes, I would say so, as in what our limitations were last year.
“But it’s not just my feedback, it’s every team-mate, even 2021, 2020, when I wasn’t even driving the car, it was the same issues.
“There’s always been an inherent issue with the Williams cars in the last 4 or 5 years.”
The Grove-based squad elected to introduce just one upgrade package throughout last season, which Albon hopes will pay dividends with a more compliant 2024 car.
“And I think this year especially we’ve sacrificed a little bit of development time on the 45 car to focus on the [FW]46, shortening the amount of upgrades we had on the car, to make sure that we try to attack this car a little bit more aggressively and really start to change the DNA of the car,” he added.
“That’s the plan, let’s see if it happens.”
