Two weeks ago, Williams was on top: At the traditional team’s home race in Silverstone, the team from Grove delivered the best qualifying and race results of the 2024 season. Alexander Albon finished ninth and scored points for Williams for only the second time this year.
But at the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend, reality could catch up with Williams again. “We have low expectations,” Albon openly admitted on media day in Budapest. “It’s not a track that should suit us, a bit like Barcelona: hot. It’s a bit more about pure downforce.”
Williams struggles with weaknesses of the FW46
At the Spanish GP four weeks ago, Williams was far from scoring points. In qualifying, Albon and his teammate Logan Sargeant were relegated to the last two places, which became P18 and P20 in the race. “We would be lying if we said it wasn’t going to be one of our more challenging weekends,” said Sargeant with a view to Budapest.
In addition to the track characteristics of the Hungaroring, the expected high temperatures could also cause problems for Williams, as Albon mentioned. Williams has struggled with overheating tires so far in 2024, which has repeatedly proven fatal. “It hurt us both in qualifying and in the race,” explained Sargeant. “And it’s something that hurts us even more on high-downforce tracks.”
In addition to these issues, the FW46 also continues to struggle with an unstable rear end – both when turning into corners and on corner exit. “I feel like we’re generally making pretty good progress in terms of how we set up the car to try and counteract these issues,” Sargeant said, praising his team.
Williams updates are slow to arrive
This state of affairs does not bode well for the weekend in Hungary. Albon, however, also saw an opportunity in what is expected to be a difficult weekend. “It is a good test for us,” said the Thai-Brit. “We came up with some new options and new ideas after Barcelona.”
What is lacking at Williams, however, are further significant updates in the development race. Albon had already explained after the race in Great Britain that it could take a while before further major packages were available. Overall, the 28-year-old made no secret of the fundamentally difficult first half of the 2024 season for Williams: “It was difficult. Of course we wanted more.”
Albon continued that the gap to the top had shrunk, but: “Simply relatively speaking, we weren’t as performing as some of the other midfield teams. So it’s still a race and it’s still very close out there. An upgrade can catapult you back into the fight for points, but for now, this will be our car this weekend.”
In contrast to Williams, McLaren has not been able to get over a less competitive car in the Formula 1. The team from Woking was instead struggling with operational implementation in critical moments such as the rain chaos in Silverstone. McLaren wants to have learned the lessons from this and improve in the future. You can read how exactly in this article: