Williams Racing Head of Vehicle Performance Dave Robson was pleased to see a great race and recovery for Alex Albon after losing positions in Saturday’s sprint, though Nicholas Latifi had to retire as a result of floor damage.
Robson said that Albon’s battle for the final points position with Valtteri Bottas was a close one, and that he was disappointed that he ultimately missed out on a top ten finish.
“Today was a good recovery after the result yesterday. Alex drove well and the strategy worked well. Having got into the top 10 with only 10 laps to go, it was disappointing to miss out on a point. However, we had been battling with Bottas since the first pitstop and it was a tight race that could’ve gone either way. At least we got a full race completed with the updated car, which gives some data to go through before we run again in France.”
Robson said that the team decided to retire Latifi’s car on lap 48 in order to protect the car, as the floor damage done to the car greatly affected the it’s performance and was worsening as the race went on.
“Nicholas suffered with some floor damage early in the race, which cost him a lot of downforce and made the car very difficult to drive. As the damage worsened, we elected to retire him before more significant damage occurred.”
Nonetheless, Robson’s reflection of the team’s performance at the Red Bull Ring was largely positive and a step up from the unfortunate circumstances of the British Grand Prix, which saw Albon retire after getting tangled in an intense incident off the start.
“After the damage done in Silverstone last week, to come straight to the Red Bull Ring and for Alex to be competitive throughout the weekend and for Nicholas to continue his good qualifying performance, is a good result for the entire team who worked very hard to get us back into this position.”
