Weight Crisis at Williams F1: Alex Albon Opens Up About The Challenge Slowing The Team Down

As the 2024 Formula 1 season unfolds, Williams Racing continues to battle significant challenges with their car’s weight, according to driver Alex Albon. Despite efforts to lighten the chassis, the Williams FW46 remains notably heavy, which has severely impacted its performance on the track. Albon’s insights offer a candid look into the ongoing struggles faced by the Grove squad as they work through the season’s early races.

Williams’s plight began with a late start in production, resulting in an initial chassis that was substantially overweight. Throughout the off-season, the team managed to eliminate 14 kilograms from the car’s weight. However, even with these improvements, the machinery still lags behind the competition, running four to five-tenths of a second slower per lap than expected. Albon’s teammate, Logan Sargeant, awaits similar updates, which began with Albon at the Imola race with a revised floor and various other parts.

The Thai-British driver expressed the difficulty of addressing these challenges publicly, especially before Williams team boss James Vowles acknowledged the issue.

“It was hard because you guys were asking me what the difference was with last year’s car, and I was telling you it’s better, but we were running around in P19 and P20. I kind of had to bite my lip a little bit, but it was mostly down to it,” Albon shared. “There are still things in our car that we need to improve, I’m not denying that, but it was always very hard to answer your questions.”

Despite these challenges, Albon managed to secure Williams’s first points of the season with a ninth-place finish at Monaco—a track less impacted by the car’s weight. However, his progress was curtailed in Canada following an incident with Carlos Sainz. Albon noted:

“We’re still overweight and by a good amount. Monaco I think is the least sensitive to weight and Canada is the fourth least sensitive to weight, so good tracks. Barcelona goes the other way, so we just need to make the most of these moments until the weight does come out of the car. There’s a big push to try to get it on weight before the end of the season, but it is going to be tough.”

Looking ahead to the Spanish Grand Prix at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the driver in blue remains cautiously optimistic due to the introduction of a new maximum downforce rear wing. However, he tempers expectations regarding a significant shift in competitive dynamics.

“Barcelona will just be about trying to optimize our car. It’s max downforce, which is similar to Monaco, so our big rear wing works quite well. It’s quite efficient. I’m not expecting some magic switches [in the pecking order], I’m just hoping we’ve got a car that’s a bit more consistent,” he explained.

“Barcelona has predominantly been one of the worst circuits for us. I know we say that about a lot of tracks, but it really is one of the worst ones. I’ll be interested to see if we’re okay in Barcelona now or maybe we’re actually good.”

As the season progresses, the effectiveness of Williams’s weight reduction strategies and their impact on the team’s competitive standing will be closely watched.