Alexander Albon may have missed out on points in Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix, but the Williams Racing driver admitted to being happy that the top ten was not far away around a track the team were not expecting to be that competitive on.
Albon ended twelfth on Sunday afternoon and was only eight seconds off the top ten, although this gap was shortened by the late race safety car at Circuit Zandvoort.
Nevertheless, Albon was happy with his performance around a high-downforce circuit that Williams have traditionally struggled at, and he said it was a ‘good job’ to get so close to the top ten.
“I think coming into today, we didn’t have high expectations, so think we’ve proven we’re not too far away from the points,” said Albon.
“We didn’t expect much from the high downforce circuit, so it’s positive and I think going forward we won’t be so scared of these types of circuits and can focus on fighting for points. I was happy with the car, despite just lacking a bit of lap time.
“There’s still a little bit to find, but we can work on this and look at what we can do, as right now we’re fine tuning the package and know its limitations. It’s not points but it’s a good job.”
“It was just a race to forget really” – Nicholas Latifi
Team-mate Nicholas Latifi endured a weekend to forget in the Netherlands, with the Canadian ending a lapped eighteenth after starting right at the back of the pack.
Latifi admitted to being confused to why they were so far off the pace compared to his team-mate, and it will need some analysing between this race and the Italian Grand Prix next weekend to understand.
“It was just a race to forget really,” said Latifi. “We’ve been struggling with pace the whole weekend and it’s quite confusing to me as to why.
“Due to the issue in qualifying we didn’t really get the chance to see where we would have been on pace, so one to learn from.”
