Elbon: Williams is already in a better position

Alex Albon is gearing up for his second season with Williams and believes the team will be more confident in 2023 than last year when they finished last in the Constructors’ Championship. However, during the presentation of the FW45, a new car made in the Grove, he also warned fans against unnecessarily high expectations.

Alex Albon: “It is difficult to say whether the team can move on to higher positions. I would say this, now we are certainly in a more favorable position than we were at the end of last year.

I don’t know to what extent this will be confirmed by the track results, as I don’t know what progress the rest of the teams have made, but this will only become clear over time. And while it’s hard to say what positions we’re in, the form of the team has improved a lot.

Of course I understand very well which way we have to go. The main difference from last year is that I already have experience working with the team, I have mastered the culture and traditions and I am familiar with the approach to business. We are well prepared for the start of work in Bahrain and winter testing will allow us to make faster progress and refine the car. Obviously, we are in a more favorable position this year.

At the same time, I don’t think we can already show results at the start of the season that are comparable to Haas’s a year ago, when they immediately started to perform quite competitively. We redid a lot in our car, including these were conceptual changes. In particular, we try to correct its behavior when cornering. It can take a while to figure everything out and optimize it.

Looking back on last year, the car only received one major technical update during the season, so I hope we can make more improvements in 2023, even if they are less noticeable.

Let’s see how it plays out in Bahrain – let’s hope the changes we’ve made have made it possible to make the car faster and more efficient. That said, I don’t think we can make a big impression right away, but it’s just that our actions need to be well thought out.