Alex Albon is feeling hopeful ahead of this weekend’s Saudi Arabia Grand Prix, in which Formula 1 revisits the Jeddah Corniche Circuit for the third time. The Williams Racing driver expects that the fast-paced street circuit may suit the FW45 better than Bahrain International Circuit.
Albon started the season off strong in Bahrain, with the driver gaining five places during Sunday’s race finishing tenth and scoring points for the Oxfordshire-based team. However, despite bagging a point in the opening race of the season, bumping Williams to seventh in the Constructors Championship, Albon still believes that he wasn’t able to get the most out of the FW45 and hopes this weekend in Jeddah will be different.
“Jeddah is a really fun street track and I’m looking forward to it, however, it’s one of those tracks where confidence is very important, and you need to build up through the weekend. On paper, it’s a track that might suit us a little better than Bahrain, so we’ll see once we’re there. We’re still understanding the car and it will be interesting to go to a different track to learn more about the car.”
This time last season Williams was in a far worse position, back then Nicholas Latifi was driving for the team, as both drivers missed out on top ten positions in Bahrain, however, this time Williams Racing is going into round 2 in a much better position and a somewhat competitive car. This weekend is set to be more ‘interesting’ for the team as they continue to learn about its Grand Prix contender and see how the FW45 performs on a different track.
Logan Sargeant: “We’ve built a great foundation in Bahrain to work from.”
For Formula 2 rookie Logan Sargeant, his Formula 1 debut was less than he had hoped for with the American driver being eliminated in Qualifying One after failing to make it through to the second stage of Qualifying. Sargeant started his debut for Williams Racing in sixteenth, just one place behind his team-mate, however, he failed to match Albon’s five places and only made up three places, finishing in thirteenth.
Although Sargeant probably wished to make up points in his Formula 1 debut, reflecting on Bahrain he believes the team ‘built a great foundation’ whilst at the Bahrain International Circuit. This weekend is likely to be particularly challenging for Sargeant, not only is the Floridian still building up his experience in a Formula 1 car, but this will be his first time racing at the Jeddah circuit, a street circuit that arguably is the fastest on this seasons calendar with lap speeds being an average of 250km/h. However, like his team-mate, Sargeant is aware of how challenging the circuit can be but is hoping for a positive result regardless.
“I’m really looking forward to round two in Saudi. We’ve built a great foundation in Bahrain to work from. Hopefully, we can continue to be competitive and keep improving as a team. Obviously, Jeddah is a very challenging circuit so we’re going to have to build into the weekend with the aim to come away with a positive result.”
