Sargeant's Race Marred by Early Collision

Albon faces unexpected challenges at Williams F1, while Sargeant’s race ends early due to a collision.

Never in the rhythm, the Williams F1 team could not legitimately hope to score points today at the Red Bull Ring.

Nevertheless, Alexander Albon, who finished 15th, believes he could have ended up slightly higher. The Thai driver also received a five-second penalty for, like Lewis Hamilton, crossing the white line when entering the pits. What else did he lack to finish higher?

“I think finishing 12th or 13th was possible today. I know it’s not about points, but I don’t like finishing behind what we could have achieved. With the pit stops, I lost a lot of time, either fighting with cars that pitted immediately after or coming out in dirty air. It wasn’t easy, with a short track and slightly trickier pit stops, and I know it’s my fault I crossed the white line, but it’s just frustrating.”

“We’ve drawn some lessons from this weekend that we can use at Silverstone, but there are still questions to be asked—I did not expect us to be lacking so much in performance. I hope we don’t face the same issues next week and that we’ll come back stronger.”

Logan Sargeant finished dead last. His race, like that of Charles Leclerc, was compromised by a first-lap contact.

“The afternoon was challenging. I damaged my front wing in the first lap and from there, I was praying for a safety car that never came. I felt the pace was relatively good and it was a good step forward from yesterday, but it’s still a painful day. Overall, things are moving in the right direction, but we need to find more pace in the car.”

Sven Smeets, the sporting director, naturally frowned… especially as the next Grand Prix at Silverstone, the team’s home race, also looks complex…

“The day was tough for both drivers, starting with Logan who had contact in the first lap, which forced him to pit for a new front wing. Alex struggled to find a good position on the track and clean air, which impacted his ability to fight in the pack. We also knew that today, with the high temperatures, tyre management was going to be a challenge.”

“These two weekends have been tough for the team, last time in Barcelona and here in Austria, but we’ll try to learn from this weekend and come back stronger next weekend for the Silverstone Grand Prix.”