A tough Sunday showing for Williams Racing at the Hungarian Grand Prix tipped off what proved to be another disappointing weekend for the team in 2022.
Alex Albon’s race was compromised from the opening lap as contact saw him forced into an early pit-stop for a new front-wing.
Pitting for the medium compound tyres, Albon like the rest of the field struggled immensely with tyre degradation throughout the Grand Prix.
“The race was okay. We were a bit out of sequence with the early damage and there was a lot of tyre degradation and a lot of pitstops, which didn’t make it easy.”
Opting for a three-stop strategy, Albon would bring home his FW44 in seventeenth place. Despite finishing towards the back of the pack, Albon noted how this weekend has proved to be a positive for the team as they continue to learn about the FW44’s updated package.
“It’s been a tricky weekend for us, but it has been a good learning weekend, continuing to understand the strengths and the weaknesses of the new package.”
With the summer break now upon us, Alex Albon took some time to reflect on the first half of the season. While the results haven’t come easily for the team in the first twelve races, the twenty-six-year-old remains optimistic of a strong second half of the season.
“Looking back at the season so far, personally I’m happy; it’s gone well and better than I expected, and I go into the summer break pretty happy. Obviously, we’re not where we want to be positioning on circuits, but we’ve got time to reset now and we’ll come back stronger after the break.”
Nicholas Latifi: “Our race was compromised at the start through some front wing damage”
Nicholas Latifi suffered an equally similar fate to his teammate at the Hungarian Grand Prix as damage on the opening lap hindered any real chance of the Canadian fighting in the race.
With the damage to Latifi’s car deemed to be not as severe as Albon’s, the Canadian driver continued with the damage, but just as his teammate did, Latifi struggled with tyre degradation throughout the race.
Latifi opted for an aggressive three stop strategy which saw him undertake two stints on the soft tyres, but the 27-year-old failed to make any progress in the race and crossed the finish line in eighteenth place.
“Unfortunately, our race was compromised at the start through some front wing damage. It wasn’t great as the damage set us back with much more tyre degradation than we were hoping for. The balance was very tricky with the wind, so we have to find a way to adjust that later in the season.”
Heading into the summer break Latifi will be hoping to kickstart his season at the Belgian Grand Prix as the Canadian driver looks to retain his seat at Williams Racing for 2023.
“Not the best way to go into the summer break, but we’ll take the time to recharge and look to bounce back in Spa.”
