Alex Albon has explained the reasons behind his heated radio exchanges with his Williams team during last weekend’s Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix.
The Anglo-Thai driver achieved his third consecutive points finish to continue his strong start to the campaign as he converted ninth place on the grid at Suzuka.
The race was a tame affair, with the low tyre degradation locking teams into one-stop strategies, decreasing the overtaking opportunities available to the drivers.
The team opted to leave Albon out for longer, which saw him lose time when eventual race-winner Max Verstappen and second-placed Lando Norris overtook him.
This left an angry Albon exclaiming: “You guys make absolutely no sense,” believing an earlier stop would have seen him gain an advantage over Haas’ Oliver Bearman and Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar, with whom he was competing for position.
After the race, Albon explained to media including Motorsport Week exactly why he was conveying displeasure at the team’s decision.
“In terms of strategy, it was more just… I didn’t feel like we needed to lose time behind Max, because he overtook us, so we lost about a second and a half to Isack in that process, and then we boxed immediately after he overtook me, so I’m sure they’ll show me why.
“Maybe I would have come out behind another car, but, in the moment, it felt like we wasted a second and a half.”
Albon added that his concentration was geared more towards catching Hadjar, rather than ensuring he stayed ahead of Bearman.
“Obviously we could have pitted the same lap as Ollie, and pitted the lap before, we wouldn’t have had the issue at all,” he said.
“It was more because we were… I guess in my head, I’m always racing the car in front, not the car behind.
“I don’t want to lose time to Isack, and I think after the pit stop he was about five and a half seconds in front, six seconds in front, and we got it back to three and a half.
“But we just lost out by the… I don’t think Isack was possible to overtake this today, but yeah, we’re trying to get P8.”
Albon explains issue with gear shifts
Albon also explained another radio message, in which he told the team: “These shifts are so bad. What have we done to them? It’s been s**t at the start, it’s being s**t now.”
“Yeah, I think it was a boring race, so they kept using my radio messages,” he remarked.
“Shift settings, we’ve been experimenting with shift settings all weekend, and we landed on something we were quite happy with.
“I think in the end it actually felt better in qualifying and didn’t feel that good in the race, so we reverted.”
Despite airing his grievances, Albon reflected on what was another positive day for himself and Williams as it consolidated fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship.
But having been unable to match the pace that Racing Bulls had to head the midfield, Albon suspects the Williams FW47 car was sensitive to the change in wind direction.
“I think the wind and some of the corners weren’t playing to our favour,” he expanded.
“I think on Friday the car… that wind suited us more, and it flipped 180 degrees Saturday and Sunday.
“But we still scored points, and that just shows you, even on days that we’re not that optimal, we’re able to still score some points, so yeah, very happy.”
When asked that, given the race saw all 20 cars finish, he was pleased with the result, Albon reiterated: “Very happy, very happy.
“Yeah, like I said, it wasn’t easy out there, and I felt like we were quite limited in terms of the balance of our car, high speed, low speed.
“We were on the extremes of two different balances in two different speeds of corners. And so to be able to get there, I’m happy, yeah.”
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