Jack Aitken believes 84-race driver hasn’t unlocked the full potential of his 2024 car yet

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Williams are yet to get off the mark in the 2024 Formula 1 season, but Alex Albon may not have unlocked the car’s full potential yet.

The 27-year-old has taken part in 84 Grand Prix and may not look back on his outing in Saudi Arabia particularly fondly after narrowly missing out on points.

However, speaking on The Chequered Flag Podcast, Jack Aitken believes there’s more to come from Albon in the coming races.

Alex Albon’s Williams still has more potential

The 2024 season hasn’t started brilliantly for James Vowles’s team but not because their rivals from last year have made any significant progress except for Haas.

RB were praised during pre-season testing but haven’t converted that into results so far this year, while the new livery on the Sauber hasn’t improved their performances.

Haas are certainly quicker but Nico Hulkenberg’s point was earned due to some dogged defensive driving by Kevin Magnussen, while the performance drop-off from Alpine has been incredibly worrying.

Alex Albon may feel that the point scored by Hulkenberg should have been his had it not been for Magnussen’s persistence.

The Thai driver was sensational last season and virtually earned Williams’s seventh-place finish in the Constructors’ Championship.

Aitken believes that there’s still more potential within Albon’s 2024 Williams and they could take another step forward soon.

Given the increased gap between the top five and bottom five teams, being the best of the rest could be vital this season to scoring points.

Albon might still have more to give after frustrating 11^th-place

Speaking about the race behind the quickest teams, Aitken said: “I think that midfield battle is going to be great again because Williams and Albon in particular, they feel like they haven’t quite unlocked the potential of that car yet this season so far.

“It’s only been two races, [but] I feel like they were very close to getting a decent result today but Alex just couldn’t get past that gaggle in the middle and had a bit of damage as well.

“Even with that, he finished a strong P11.”

Albon will hope that his Williams has more potential to get quicker after admitting the team delivered a very different car during pre-season.

He earned praise from David Croft for his performance on Saturday but that wasn’t enough to score a precious point.

While he’s contracted to Williams until the end of 2025, the likes of Mercedes are still keeping a close eye on him.

He may start to consider his options if Williams can’t take the necessary steps forward in the coming weeks and months.