Williams admits they got Alex Albon’s strategy wrong ‘twice’ at the Dutch GP

James Vowles acknowledges that the team's choice to have Alex Albon remain on slick tires during the rain at the Dutch GP was a mistake.

Williams admits they got Alex Albon’s strategy wrong ‘twice’ at the Dutch GP

Alex Albon (Via IMAGO)

During the Dutch GP, Williams produced one of their strongest qualifying performances of the season. Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant made it to Q3 for the first time in the 2023 season. Albon secured the P4 starting position, while his American teammate secured P10 in Q3.   

After beginning the race in fourth position, Albon’s position dropped as he was one of only five drivers who chose to stay on slick tires instead of switching to intermediates during the rain. Despite falling back, he managed to recover and reach as high as sixth place before rain reappeared towards the end

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0jzjTEhJew

Team principal James Vowles admitted that their decision to remain on slicks at the beginning of the race was a wrong call. Albon again chose to remain on the track during a lap when most of the field pitted due to rain towards the end of the race. However, he eventually made his pit stop on the following lap. Vowles said the second strategy call was also the wrong one.

FS Video

“You either stop on lap one or lap two, or you stay out. The reason why we didn’t stop was on the radar initially, it didn’t look like it was going to be as bad as it was. Now, clearly, the losses were quite significant to inter runners The second stop as well, coming in for those inters, again, that was wrong. That was one lap late,” Vowels said, as reported by Motorsports.com.

Discover: Christian Horner says Max Verstappen isn’t immune to pressure as he isn’t a robot

Alex Albon joins Williams in analyzing race decisions after the Dutch GP

Williams Racing
Williams Racing

Following his eighth-place finish, Albon agreed with his team boss that Williams should take the time to review and understand the mistakes they had made. He was more concerned about the second call, unlike the first one. Albon was envisioning a better finish and left disappointed after the poor result, yet he isn’t demotivated since it was an amazing result.

“We need to review that second pitstop call. It’s so tricky because I didn’t pit, and for the first half lap, I thought perfect, I’ve actually overcut everyone right now, I’ve overcut the two cars in front of me, because sector one and midway through sector two it was still dry. It’s one of those things. It feels like we finished today slightly disappointed that we didn’t finish sixth, but we still finished eighth. It’s still an amazing result for us,” Albon said.

After the Dutch GP, Alex Albon is currently holding the 13th position in the standings, having accumulated 15 points, trailing behind the Australian driver, Oscar Piasti, with 36 points. With the massive improvement and impressive straight-line speed, they have the former Red Bull driver will be hoping to finish the season strong.

In case you missed it: