(Feature Image courtesy of Williams Racing)
As the quali session ended at Monaco, Alex Albon put forth Williams’ best qualifying run of the 2024 F1 season. His P9 run is also the team’s highest position for a Monaco GP since 2011.
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In the quali’s aftermath, the Thai-British racer opened up on his impressive stint ahead of Sunday’s race at Monaco.
Alex Albon Credits Williams’ ‘Tire Prep’ for P9 Quali Run at 2024 Monaco GP
After the quali kicked off, Albon sprinted his Williams Racing FW46 to its first Q3 session of 2024. His Q1 and Q2 runs were impressive with 1:11.623 and 1:11.216 lap times. In Q3 sessions, he delivered a better sprint in 1:10.948 time- just three hundredths earlier than ten-placed Pierre Gasly.
In the post-quali interview, Alex Albon gave credits to Williams’ tire preps for his ‘confident and pushy’ P9 finish at Circuit de Monaco. Reflecting on this tire management, he quoted:
“A lot of it was about tire prep and getting the tires in a window. When you can go into turn one and the grip’s there and you’re not sliding the surface, you just get this positive spiral. You can get the grip in turn one, you’re not spiking the temps on the tire, and then you’re just keeping that for the rest of the lap. That’s partly why we chose a clean out lap for Q3—just to get the tires in the right window. That gives you confidence when you know the tire’s underneath you, and you can just push.”
Quizzed on his ride experience today, he admitted that three-wheeling was the FW46’s biggest issue at Monte Carlo. Explaining this, he continued by saying:
“Our biggest issue is not so much the ride but three-wheeling. Turn five and turn six, these very big cambered corners, are like a dog on three legs. It’s okay, but it makes us lose time. To fix that, you then have to compromise the rest of the lap. It’s been an area we’ve been focusing on throughout the weekend. We made some changes in FP3, which went the right way. We’re still slow relatively in sector two, but less slow than we were for the rest of the weekend. That’s been the main thing for us.”
Throughout the 2024 F1 season, the FW46 has been under fire for being ‘overweight’. However, Albon believes this issue will be ineffective at tomorrow’s race, due to the track being less ‘weight-penalizing’.
“Also, the weight—we’ve been carrying this balance. It’s no secret. Monaco is great because it’s the only track where the weight’s not that penalizing, and it kind of makes it a fairer game for us compared to previous races.”
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With the circuit being a ‘tightly-spaced’, most of the teams struggled during today’s quali. Noting this fact, he blamed the ‘messy’ graining of the Circuit de Monaco.
“Graining is a mess around this track, and it seems like some drivers and teams can get around it. We were one of the most affected last year. The long runs yesterday weren’t fun at all. Hopefully, the quick guys can clear off, allowing us to get some clean air and look after that graining. Once the graining starts, you’re losing seconds a lap. We have a race on our hands, but normally all the top teams are good at managing it.”
With the Circuit de Monaco being ‘tighly-spaced’, F1 drivers tend to finish in the positions where they start. Agreeing on this fact, Albon admitted that front-row drivers ‘absolutely cruises’ to podium finishes.
“It’s a really weird one because, at the end, you’ll see what always happens around here. The driver in the lead of the race is absolutely cruising with one hand, bunching everyone up, and then at some point, he just decides to go. That creates this feeling like everyone’s got to pit as early as they can to try to get the undercut, but then you’re just holding on in the last laps.”
Alex Albon will start from the fifth-row beside Alpine’s Pierre Gasly at tomorrow’s 2024 Monaco GP. His teammate Logan Sergeant will start his run from P17 at the Circuit de Monaco.