Alex Albon says mid-season upgrade stopped two ‘fantastic’ F1 rivals going unnoticed in 2023

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Williams driver Alex Albon has said that McLaren pair Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were brilliant last year but would have gone unnoticed without their mid-season upgrade package.

McLaren went from backmarkers in Bahrain to challenging Max Verstappen for the win in Qatar.

However, speaking to Motorsport.com, Alex Albon believes the duo wouldn’t have gotten the same credit for their performances had the car not improved.

Alex Albon knows all about trying to impress at the back of the grid.

After a tough spell at Red Bull, he was given another chance in Formula 1 with Williams.

He took over from George Russell at the Grove-based team in 2022 and managed to score just four points in his first season with the team.

Russell was synonymous with outdriving what was the slowest car on the grid but still earned enough credit to line up alongside Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes.

The 27-year-old stepped it up a gear in 2023, scoring all but one of Williams’s points as they climbed to seventh in the Constructors’ Championship.

Albon has now admitted that Norris and Piastri were in a similar position but earned a lot more credit once their car improved, even though their individual performances didn’t change that much.

It’s not always easy to analyse how well a driver is doing when their car’s performance varies so much.

But going from the back of the grid to regularly scoring podiums was always going to earn McLaren’s driver more praise.

Albon calls Norris and Piastri ‘fantastic’ after 2023 season

Talking about how the media portrays drivers at the back of the grid, Albon said: “I do find it odd, you’re right. I think there’s no such thing as a good driver in a bad team.

“For the same reason I like to mention Oscar [Piastri] and Lando [Norris], they’ve both had fantastic seasons.

“But if they’d never had that [McLaren] upgrade in the middle of the season, I’m not sure you’d be talking about them quite as much.

“It’s the same thing for us but on a smaller scale. Last year, I was having fantastic races in P16 but no one would talk about it because it would just be P16 and in the middle of nowhere.

“This year when I’ve had a good race it’s been in the top 10 and it’s been talked about so your stock naturally gets bigger.”

Albon will hope he can begin to compete with Norris and Piastri more regularly heading into 2024.

He’s entering the final year of his Williams contract and could end up at a top team going forward based on his recent performances.

Albon also benefitted from outclassing rookie teammate Logan Sargeant last year and if he does so again then he will be near the top of a lot of manufacturers’ lists of potential signings.