An ‘outstanding’ drive from Alex Albon pushes Williams up the F1 standings

Albon’s seventh-place finish in the Canadian Grand Prix wa a massive result for Williams

All season long, and even dating back to pre-season Formula 1 testing, you got the sense a day like this was coming for Alex Albon and Williams.

It finally came for Albon and the team on Sunday in the Canadian Grand Prix.

After advancing to Q3 on Sunday, Albon started the Grand Prix in P9, and pushed up to P8 when George Russell collided with the wall on Lap 12. Albon, who started the race on an old set of medium tyres, came into the pits for a fresh set of hards, coming back onto the track back in P12 when the race finally resumed.

A cycle of pit stops bumped Albon up to P8 by Lap 37, and Albon found himself in P7 by Lap 40. He had a hard-charging George Russell behind him to contend with, but Albon was able to fend off the Mercedes, and Russell eventually retired with a brake failure.

Albon then was forced to defend the rest of the way against Esteban Ocon, but he managed to keep him behind, as the team executed their one-stop strategy to perfect for Albon’s best result of the season, a well-earned seventh-place finish.

You could hear what the finish meant to Albon, and the entire team, when he crossed the line:

“We have seen in the past that Alex is exceptionally good at managing a race and defending against a group of cars,” said Dave Robson, the Williams Head of Vehicle Performance.

“Today, he was able to overtake on track and then couple all of his past experience with the strengths of the updated FW45 to pull off a very good result,” Robson added. “His drive was outstanding and the help he received from the team was equally impressive.”

“It’s been a very strong weekend and I have to thank the team first and foremost,” Albon stated post-race. “We had the upgrade on the car, and I think it shows that we made a good step and the circuit suited us.”

The team brought some upgrades to the circuit in Montreal, and used them only on Albon’s FW45. Speaking after the Friday practice sessions, Team Principal James Vowles outlined the extensive changes Williams brought to Montreal for Albon’s FW45:

“It’s large for an upgrade. Even if you look up and down the grid people wouldn’t normally bring this amount to a car.

“It’s fairly normal to bring a floor, maybe a front wing, but to bring basically near enough every contact surface that has air flowing through it…

“The front wing hasn’t changed but the Halo has, the upper body work has, the sidepods have, the rear wing endplates have, the rear suspension has, as well large amounts of work with suspension.

“That’s not normal, but it’s just to give you an idea of at least the significance of the update.”

The results were certainly seen this weekend. Albon, thanks to a bold call for the soft compound during tricky weather conditions teams faced in Q2, posted the fastest lap time in the second session, advancing to Q3. While he ended up in tenth, he started ninth due to a penalty handed down to Carlos Sainz Jr., and made the most of his opportunity.

“The work that has gone on at the factory to get this upgrade ready has been monumental and everyone has been working so hard,” said Albon post-race. “We also fitted a new power unit, so we threw everything at this weekend. We had a great qualifying yesterday and now the race today was great.”

“We suspected that the circuit in Montreal would suit the car quite well and this has been enhanced by the upgrade package, which delivered well today,” added Robson. “The whole team in Grove has worked tirelessly to deliver this upgrade and they can be suitably proud of their achievement.”

Albon’s seventh-place finish was big for the team in the overall standings, as it moved Williams ahead of AlphaTauri, and out of last place.

“To get these points on the board and move up to ninth in the Championship is a nice place to be and it’s great to be able to say thank you to the team and have this reward for everything that everyone has done,” added Albon, closing out a big weekend for him, and the team.