Alex Albon remained optimistic on the performance of the FW47 ahead of the F1 Mexico City GP, with no upgrades to the car since before the summer break.
High altitudes at the F1 Mexico City GP
With the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez sitting roughly 2,000 metres above sea level, the air is slightly thinner, which impacts both engine performance and how the cars behave on track.
The circuit itself is low downforce, meaning even the team’s high-downforce wing generates less grip than it would at Monza, the fastest track on the calendar.
Speaking in a print media session on Thursday ahead of the F1 Mexico City GP, Albon acknowledged that the FW47’s expected pace isn’t quite there. He explained that the challenge may not be purely downforce-related, but rather linked to the overall balance of the car.
“I think that’s maybe why our expected pace is not quite there. Because it’s, I think we’ve said it before, but it’s not the downforce that’s the problem with our high downforce wing, it’s the balance. That comes with the rear wing, obviously, it’s an older rear wing as well, and it just doesn’t quite have the same qualities as our, we call it, our mid downforce wing or our low downforce wing.
“So yeah, we’ll see how it goes this weekend, there’s definitely talks around what wing level do we want to be on, and balance over performance, let’s say.”
Williams position in the Constructors Championship into the final weekends
Currently in the 2025 F1 Constructors’ Championship, Williams sit in P5 with 111 points, leading the midfield pack, with Racing Bulls the closest challenger on 72 points.
When asked whether Williams can feel confident about holding their position and finishing the season in P5, Albon explained that there are still several races ahead that could easily change the standings, adding that last weekend’s Austin Sprint Race as one of those situations.
“For sure not, for sure not. We have, we’ve seen it, especially in the races like Brazil, with the weather, you have it here with the starts, a little bit like we were on the good side of it in Austin in the sprint race. We’re still learning on our car.”
FW47 having no upgrades in the second half of the season
The Williams FW47 received its first and only major upgrade package at the Belgian Grand Prix in August, just before the summer shutdown. Team Principal James Vowles noted at the time that the team’s development efforts had since shifted focus toward the 2026 car and beyond, with new specifications aimed at future performance gains.
Albon discussed ahead of the F1 Mexico City GP that he enjoys the current process of not having upgrades for a large part of the season, as it has allowed the team to experiment with the car. He highlighted that FP1 has become an opportunity to try ideas that might never have been considered during traditional upgrade cycles.
“I actually quite enjoy the process of not having any upgrades for a long time, because you end up just constantly experimenting with the car, using FP1s to try things which you would possibly never do, and actually rely on maybe the team back at factory to fix, rather than thinking about setup and tools and seeing if you can fix it in a different way.“
He added that the tests conducted during the second half of the season have made the car quicker. While the improvements may not match the pace of developing a completely new part, they have helped the team gain a deeper understanding of the FW47 overall.
“So, we’ve got some test items in FP1 to keep pushing the boundaries of our car and exploring and growing the envelope of what we can do. If you look at our pace, we’ve actually made our car quicker and quicker, not at the same rate of a development of a part, but we are improving our car just with better understanding.”
