Williams driver Alexander Albon claims that his staff didn’t act dangerously within the Imola F1 race despite having been launched from his first cease with a loose wheel.
Chasing an undercut technique within the 63-lap race, Alex Albon pitted early for a set of hards, however they weren’t fitted correctly, and he needed to come again in to the pits. That unsafe launch earned him a ten-second time penalty, and in addition meant he misplaced the one set of onerous tyres he had so needed to swap to some used mediums. With two laps left within the race, the Thai driver retired.
“After the problems we confronted with the wheel, we used the race as a little bit of a check session to experiment with the brakes on lengthy runs, taking part in round a bit in these situations. I didn’t really feel the difficulty popping out of the pits, it was solely after I took the pit limiter off and felt the vibration that I may inform one thing was incorrect.
“I knew the tyre wasn’t going to fall off because it was solely going to a sure level and would cease so it was nonetheless safe, however I perceive why I received the penalty. Whilst at present is just a little painful, it’s not all doom and gloom. We have a plan, and the midfield isn’t scoring an amazing variety of factors, so we’re not falling away an excessive amount of and might nonetheless catch up.
“At this point last year, we only had one point so were in a similar position. Whilst we don’t have as big of an upgrade coming and our focus is on taking the weight out of the car, we’ll still look to bring minor upgrades. We’ll take the learnings we can and move our focus to Monaco,” mentioned the Thai driver.
“Simply not quick enough”
James reacts to at present’s Emilia Romagna GP 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/jPSffZhrBo
— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) May 19, 2024
His team-mate Logan Sargeant had a equally robust race, ending the primary European spherical down in P17. The Florida-born driver complained in regards to the problem of overtaking and the blue flags that compromised his race and his tyres.
“Today was a little bit of a battle. There’s little or no overtaking right here, you get caught in DRS trains, there’s numerous soiled air which makes it onerous to maintain the tyres in a great place, and I had a whole lot of blue flags within the second stint, so it will probably sort of stack up.
“I think when you look at the windows we had in clean air, the performance was not bad relative to the people around us, so that was a positive. I don’t have too much to say about the race except I tried to keep my nose clean and get in the laps.”
