Albon Reaches Q2 Amidst Suzuka Struggles

Alex Albon secures Q2 at Suzuka, overcoming the FW46’s tire wear issues on a demanding track, marking a challenging yet hopeful weekend.

Alex Albon achieved Q2 on Saturday at Suzuka, and given his struggles, the Williams F1 driver is pleased with this result. He reveals that the FW46 is not comfortable on a track that quickly tends to wear down the tires.

“We’ve had a tough weekend, and I haven’t felt comfortable in the car, which is frustrating, but this is where we expected to be,” admits Albon. “We improved the car in some corners, but worsened it in others.”

“On this circuit, you can’t slide because the track is so aggressive it wears the tires. Normally, you can get away with it when the track is smooth, but when it’s rough like this, you pay a heavy price.”

“I also suffered from overheating, and when you have to manage the tires in corners to save them, it’s difficult. As for tomorrow, the car performed well during the few long runs we did in FP3, but strategy will be important, we’ll see how we fare.”

Logan Sargeant is pleased to have been able to fight with other drivers, even though he ultimately qualified 19th: “After what happened yesterday and only being able to do a few laps in FP3 this morning, this is a great turnaround.”

“We got the car in a good position for qualifying, given the limited number of laps, and we made the right decisions. I don’t think we left much time on the table. A tenth and a half in Q2 shows how tight it is.”

“I’m quite happy with how I drove, but we’re lacking a bit of pace this weekend. Tomorrow, there will be more degradation in the race, and how we manage that in sector 1 will be crucial. We’re going to try to get off to a good start, manage the race, and we hope that will leave us in a decent place.”