Update advantage for Albon is “quite big”

(Motorsport-Total.com) – Williams will have hoped for more in qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix. Alexander Albon and Franco Colapinto will start the race from eleventh and twelfth place, after both were in the top 10 in the third free practice session. Albon and Colapinto are 0.024 seconds away from making it into Q3, although unlike his teammate, they do not yet have the new updates on their FW46.

“The team has done a great job trying to bring the upgrade here,” says the Argentine. “And Alex is the first driver. He’s the one with the most experience and drives all season. He’s also always the one who will take the upgrades first. There’s quite a big advantage in the simulations and all that – that’s also really good for the team and the car.

“But I think I showed that I was capable of fighting at the front even without an improved car. The car looks really good. And I think the new suspension has taken a step forward, which is very nice to see.” We did a good job, but I just feel like I didn’t maximize my lap and that’s why I’m upset.

Albon: Update could have shifted balance

The fact that Albon didn’t make it into Q3 could also be due to the new update. Although the new suspension is a temporal improvement, according to Albon they haven’t managed to “bring the car back into balance”. It’s possible that the update doesn’t yet harmonize properly with the other parts.

“We’re still trying to understand them,” Albon said of the new parts. “I think if we were to repeat this weekend, we might have tried a few more things. I think that’s definitely a good thing, but it’s not fully developed yet. I hope that in the time leading up to Austin we can evaluate the data and drive on a conventional track where it should work a little better.

Another factor for the collective elimination in Q2 could have been the drop in temperatures for qualifying. In addition to Williams, other drivers and teams also had great problems keeping the tires in the correct working window for the entire lap. Alexander Albon spoke of balance problems after the session.

Williams with tyre problems: “Like a snowball effect”

“We’ve been struggling with the same balance problems on the car over the last two weekends,” said the 28-year-old. “Sometimes it’s a little better, in some sessions, sometimes not. But it was really unpleasant. And when it happens, we immediately lose lap time.”

“I think when you see us fast then the problem isn’t there and then when you see us like we did today then honestly there’s so much more lap time in the car if we could fix a few things but we can’t at this moment.

“It’s also a bit down to the tyres. In the first run it was the tyres and in the second run of Q2 it wasn’t. It was more the balance of the car. That’s really frustrating because the car is actually much better. But the problem we have with the car is that the tyres overheat very quickly. And then it becomes a survival lap, you feel the tyres breaking down and then it’s like a snowball effect.

Lack of F1 experience: Colapinto puzzles over tires

Colapinto, on the other hand, hasn’t really noticed the problems with the Williams, but he puts this down to his lack of Formula 1 experience and therefore doesn’t notice the small nuances as much: “These are my first qualifying sessions in Formula 1, while the others have been driving with these tires all year long this year.

“And I don’t know a lot of things. And sometimes I don’t know how to put the tires in the window. Sometimes I don’t know why I don’t have grip and I struggle to understand it. And I mean, the reality is that the drivers who have raced here have mastered everything and it’s only my third qualifying and I’m still learning a lot but I’m still missing a lot of these things.

Albon believed: In racing trim there would be no more problems

When asked in more detail, Albon gives a hint as to what the balance problems meant in detail. The key word here is bounce. “If you look at my lap, it’s really messed up. It wasn’t a good lap either. It was just that I was surprised in some corners by how the car bounced.”

“That threw me off my rhythm a bit because it takes you by surprise. And as soon as that happens, you’re on the wrong foot because you don’t know what the car is going to do in the next corner. On top of that, the tires are so sensitive that they start to overheat. Then there’s a real loss of grip.

At least Williams still has a good chance of scoring points in Singapore with starting positions eleven and twelve. In the long runs on Friday they were able to set the best pace in the midfield and were at times on the level of Mercedes and Red Bull, who seem to have made a big step from Friday to Saturday.

“When we are in race trim, it is strangely better, it is a bit strange,” says Albon. “In the race, the problems are overcome because not everyone is driving at full speed. It was the same in Baku when I had the same problems. You can’t really do much in a qualifying lap, so the car got better in the race.”