Alex Albon sets sights on rival F1 team as Williams driver reveals ‘huge’ target

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Alex Albon has set his sights on helping Williams overtake Alpine in the constructors’ championship as closing their deficit to the Renault-owned F1 team would be ‘huge’.

Just one position split the Grove and Enstone-based teams in the 2023 standings. Albon led Williams to a seventh-place finish, marking the team’s best result since they got fifth back in 2017. But Alpine finished the year 92 points better off as their two drivers often took points.

Alpine regressed between 2022 and 2023 as the team fell from fourth place with 173 points into sixth with 120. The Renault-owned squad were also in no man’s land, with Aston Martin claiming fifth with 280 points and Williams only scoring 28 thanks mostly to Albon taking 27.

Alex Albon scored 96.5% of Williams’ points in the 2023 F1 season

Albon’s results were also enough for the London-born Thai to take 13th place in the drivers’ championship in 2023. He ended up right behind Alpine pair Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon in 11th and 12th place. But the French duo scored 62 and 58 points respectively last season.

Williams had to rely on Albon to record 96.5% of their points in 2023 as Logan Sargeant only claimed one in his rookie Formula 1 season. The American also needed a slice of luck for his single point when the stewards disqualified Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc at the USGP.

Sargeant finished the United States GP in 12th place behind Albon in 11th. But Hamilton and Leclerc lost their P2 and P6 results due to excessive wear to the floors of their Mercedes and Ferrari cars. Sargeant’s best 2023 result, outside of the COTA race, was P11 at the British GP.

Alex Albon sets his sights on Alpine in the constructors’ championship

Gasly and Ocon scored points in 11 and 12 of the 22 Grand Prix during 2023, plus in two and one of the six Sprint events. Ocon also made the podium for the Monaco GP in P3 and Gasly got on the Dutch GP rostrum with P3. Albon claimed points in seven races and in one Sprint.

So, Albon believes it will be a ‘huge step’ for Williams to now eliminate their points deficit to Alpine in 2024. The Grove squad already took one big step forward between 2022 and 2023. Williams ended the 2022 F1 season last in the constructors’ championship with eight points.

“I would like to take the team to where Alpine were last year,” Albon has told Auto Motor und Sport. “They were only one position ahead of us in the team rankings but the points gap was quite large. If we were to finish ahead of them, that would be a huge step.”