Alex Albon didn’t appreciate his teammate’s move on the opening lap in Singapore, a race that saw both Williams drivers leave empty-handed.
On Saturday, both Williams drivers exited Qualifying in Q2. Alex Albon started P11 while Franco Colapinto placed himself behind him in P12.
The lights went out and by Turn 3, Colapinto saw a gap and made a bold overtake gaining three positions whilst Albon was forced wide. The Argentinian driver showed amazing pace but could not hold onto the points as he was overtaken by Sergio Perez. Albon, unfortunately, suffered cooling issues and had to retire.
After the race, Albon spoke with the media about the disappointing ending of his weekend. He said: “Obviously the engine issue is a shame, but honestly I don’t think it would have changed the race. I think we lost it at the beginning of the race. The car was really strong, it’s been really quick all weekend.
“It’s one of those ones where normally you score points and the car’s not quite there to score points, it’s satisfying. This weekend we’ve done the opposite thing – it feels like we’ve always had a car in the top 10 this weekend and we’ve come away pointless.”
Albon continued, speaking about Colapinto’s move on the opening lap. On this topic, the British-Thai driver said:
“It’s something to review, but regarding the Turn 1 thing… Franco, the move was on, it was just a bit of a shame that everyone was going into the corner and then everyone hesitated to turn left and had to let Franco past. Obviously I was on the other side of it, so it happens.”
Unfortunately for Williams, their rival team managed to score points. Even though Haas’ Kevin Magnussen DNF’d, Nico Hulkenberg placed himself 9th, scoring two points and expanding the gap in the Constructor’s Championship.
Albon also spoke about the gap to rival teams and how it was a lost opportunity for Williams in Singapore. “I feel like maybe this was a weekend where we could have closed the gap even more, but there’s still a few races left. I don’t know how many, but it’s not over yet. We’ll put our heads down.
“We need to review how the upgrades worked over the weekend. We haven’t really delved into it much, so we’ve got three weeks now until Austin to try and make it a little bit faster.”
Not the race we wanted, but a great effort from Franco to bring the car home in P11. pic.twitter.com/ZpTa37DcNZ
— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) September 22, 2024
Praise for Colapinto
While Albon was not happy with Colapinto’s move, the Argentinian driver was praised for such an amazing masterclass move. Colapinto himself was also pretty pleased by his move during the post-race interviews. He said:
“There was a pretty nice gap and I went for it and it worked out. Here, you know, the start is very important and to leave Turn 3 in front of some cars is always nice. You are in a match for a position later in the race. I was in a position to finish in the points.
“Unfortunately it didn’t happen, but it’s still a decent three first races of my life and I’m close to the points again. We need to focus a little bit more, focus a bit more on quali. We should have been in Q3 and today we should have been able to finish P10, but just need to keep nailing it and we’ll be better for the next race.”
Williams was expecting a better result at the Singapore Grand Prix. The Grove-based team has shown improvement and Colapinto has shown he can deliver the expected results. With the recent upgrades, the team expects to do better at the next race at Austin.
Headline image: X @WilliamsRacing