“We had to do something different,” Alex Albon reflects on a miraculous P7 finish after racing with the same tyre for 50 laps
Williams F1 driver Alex Albon talks about his gruelling journey to P7 at the 2023 Canadian GP with an interesting strategy.
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Alex Albon and Jost Capito
Formula 1 driver Alex Albon pulled off a miracle in style at the 2023 Canadian GP. It all started from qualifying wherein the Williams driver was on a roll. He went on to make a striking call to shift to soft tyres during Q2 which helped him get into Q3. He was in the perfect window as the rain started to intensify later on which prevented anyone from improving their lap times.
After a rain guzzling qualifying , Alex Albon was to start from P10 for the race. While Ex- teammate Max Verstappen started from pole and eased his way towards victory, the path for Albon was not the same. Williams has been known to use one stop strategies in order to get a jumpstart on their competitors. The same strategy was used for the Canadian HP where Alex went on a one stop in order to gain track position.
With just one pitstop done, Alex Albon had switched to hards which he intended to use for the rest of the race. Whilst doing so, he jumped McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri who had started the race ahead of him. Alex used the car’s pros in order to help fuel his charge as he went on to chase after Esteban Ocon. It was a mammoth of an effort which paid off in the end.
Alex Albon talks about his bonkers strategy for the Canadian GP
In an interview, here is what he had to say. “To be honest, I do think we had similar pace to the McLarens the whole weekend,” he said when asked by Autosport about his race. “Realistically, where we were, we had to do something different to them as they were in front to get the points,” the Williams driver continued as he went on to talk about the team’s brilliant idea.
“And yeah, we’ve had very good pace this weekend, but to get points is difficult. You’ve got those eight cars, the Astons, the Red Bulls, the Ferraris the Mercedes, the final two positions it normally feels like it’s normally the Alpines now. So we had to stick to the one-stop,” he said. “When the guys told me I had 35-40 laps – I think they even told me 20 just to make me feel better – and I looked at the TV screen, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I hope that’s not real,’ he continued.
All seemed to go exactly as planned for Alex Albon and Williams as their strategy worked out in the end. Whilst Albon crossed the checkered flag in seventh, teammate Logan Sargeant failed to finish the race. Nevertheless, Albon’s recent triumph has led to Williams passing AlphaTauri and cementing its spot in P9 in the constructors championship. It will be interesting to see weather there will be more performances such as this from the Thai driver.
case you missed it:
- “Really, really good feeling,” Charles Leclerc declares Canadian GP Friday as his best F1 outing in 2023
- “I can be great at anything,” Lewis Hamilton reveals how he silenced an angry Niki Lauda to pursue endeavors outside of F1
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Varad Joshi
(940 Articles Published)