Alex Albon has claimed that Williams having an overweight 2024 Formula 1 car has cost it so much performance that it could’ve beaten Mercedes in the opening race.
Williams revealed last month that tight deadlines to assemble its FW46 challenger meant that several parts ended up overweight to the tune of 0.045 seconds per lap.
The seismic cost in lap time has seen the Grove-based squad slump from seventh in the Constructors’ standings last term to ninth this season with two points to date.
But while Albon recorded points in Monaco and was in contention in Canada until Carlos Sainz hit him, the Anglo-Thai racer admits Williams has been on the back foot.
“We’ve definitely been playing catch-up,” Albon said. “We’ve been getting weight out of the car for the last few races now, so naturally it’s been going on the up.
“It’s weight as well, so unlike other people, which maybe aero is a little bit up and down, for us it was a guarantee that we would improve.
“There’s some teams bringing a lot of upgrades this weekend, which we’ve got minor ones, and again, it’s a little bit more weight-focused.”
Albon is convinced that Williams would have been competing above its rivals and for regular points in the scenario where the car was operating at the optimal weight.
Asked whether Williams would be in front of the midfield without the weight issue, he replied: “If you take the races so far this year, it’s almost a guarantee that we would have been.
“I think now everyone’s starting to bring upgrades, and as we are getting closer to the target as well, it’s becoming less of that case.
“Of course, there’s still that time in being on target to where we are now, but then again, teams like RB have made huge progress. They’re developing very quickly as well.
“So, start of the year, yes, and now we’re at midpoint, or still early side of halfway, the lesser.”
Albon has attributed the ongoing weight problem to Williams’ relative drop compared to the competition and even thinks pipping Mercedes was possible in Bahrain.
“It’s the weight, basically,” he reiterated. “I think if you look at it from race one, I think on pace-wise we could have been likely in front of the Mercedes.
“We started off the year with a good base, possibly a car that we knew weren’t going to have many upgrades for a while.
“But obviously as we were hit by the weight, think of it more like what has to start the year strong and have fewer upgrades throughout the year.
“But with the weight, everything was offset, so we were starting from further back than what we expected to be. And that’s it really.
“I think racing is such a joint effort between team and drivers. So if you look at last year, we had a great car in a lot of races.
“It was peaky, but we were able to score points when it mattered. This year, we just haven’t been able to do that.
“There’s not been enough peaks for us, Monaco being one and Canada being the other one.
“When you’re handicapped by, at some points, four or five-tenths a lap, especially at the start of the season, there’s not really much chance of scoring points.”
But while it will cut more bulk this weekend, Albon suspects Barcelona’s more conventional circuit characteristics will expose the weaknesses in Williams’ package.
“I’ll be interested, because realistically speaking, if you look at Monaco and Canada, to Barcelona, they’re very different circuits,” he acknowledged.
“I think we’ve always struggled around here. I don’t expect us to be as competitive this weekend as we were in the last two, but I’m open for it.
“Obviously, I’d rather that not be the case, but I think we’ll be OK. It’s just points fighting, that’ll be a bigger ask.”
