Williams Racing’s Alex Albon delivered an impressive final run in Q3 to secure a P5 finish during Qualifying at the F1 Belgian GP. It has been a whirlwind of emotions for Williams as they were hit with a struggle-filled Friday—from Carlos Sainz’s fuel-system issues during Practice and Albon’s SQ1 exit. A stark contrast to yesterday’s Sprint Qualifying results, the Thai driver was pleased but surprised to have walked away with P5 start for Sunday’s main race.
Speaking in the print media zone after the session, the Thai driver reflected on his performance and addressed the set-up changes the team had to make headed into Qualifying—in what has been a tough weekend for the Grove-based team.
“Really happy” after final Q3 run
Bouncing back from the disappointments of Friday when he had deployment issues, Albon was extremely delighted to have secured a top five start for Sunday. “Yeah, it’s always nice to be on that side of it. Yeah, really happy,” Albon said.
The Sprint saw a 15-lap race where drivers struggled to carve their way through the field. On a track known for its long straights and high-speed corners, the 29 year-old explained Williams’ decision into opting for a lower-than-normal downforce set-up—a choice that came with its trade-offs.
“I would say we were quite draggy on the Sprint Race and we decided to drop something out the car, just to be in line more with other people in the race. The Sprint Race I was quick but couldn’t do anything behind the other cars. It means going into Qualifying everything feels a little bit trickier because you’re obviously sliding around a little bit more and the tyres fall away from you more as well.”
Deployment issues on Friday hindered their potential
Albon explained how fixing their deployment issues from Friday played the biggest difference today. However, on pure pace, the Thai wasn’t necessarily confident in the car and was unsure where he could find any further improvements.
“We fixed the deployment which was the biggest difference from Friday to today. But then, I would say pure pace, I felt less competitive during Qualifying than I was at any point before the Qualifying session. It felt tricky, I mean I was P10 in Q2 and I didn’t feel that happy. I didn’t really know where the lap time was, where I could get more positions let’s say.”
Albon credited his final Q3 push to tyre performance. Subsequently, he admitted he found a significant amount of time needed to land the P5 finish he achieved.
“And then Q3 happened and I found a chunk of time so I put it down to tyres as it always is and we found three spots today on the last run.”
Tackling ‘lower’ downforce set-up in rain
Another wet-weathered race is in store for fans, teams and drivers this weekend—with the weather forecasts predicting it to be. After going too low on their downforce set-up in Silverstone, it was a lesson learnt for Williams and Albon. The Thai driver described how their car’s draggy nature balanced out the decision to opt for a lower downforce set-up.
“We were so far on the draggy side though that we’re still ok. If you remember Silverstone, I think it was the Red Bulls and ourselves we were quite low on downforce and we paid the price when it rained on Sunday so we made sure not to overdo it.”
Compared to other teams, Albon candidly admitted that the team’s struggles in the wet continue to persist. Nonetheless, he remains optimistic and will hope for it to be as dry as possible tomorrow.
“But yeah, hopefully we’ll be ok. I still think as a team we struggle a bit more in the wet compared to some other cars out there. So if we can stay dry as long as possible that would be great.”
Sacrificing car-handling for speed
Albon admitted the team hasn’t had enough track time to perfect the setup, especially with the constraints of a sprint weekend. He believes improvements will come with set-up tweaks, but acknowledged it’s been a challenging start due to limited running.
Albon said: “Yeah, I would say so. I think we obviously haven’t done enough laps yet to really set up the car into a perfect place.
“I think a lot of that will come back to us just with set-up changes. Being a sprint race weekend we haven’t really been able to do much. We’ve got more downforce. But yeah, I think we need to see because it hasn’t been the easiest weekend so far just to get laps together.”
After their long-runs on Friday, Albon believes their race pace can be competitive. However, he highlighted that finding clean air will be crucial in managing their race.
“Honestly, I think our race pace is strong. It’s hard to know because I’ve been in DRS train the whole race this morning. But my race pace was good on Friday.
“I think we’ll be ok, we just need to get some clear air and I hope maybe the cars will come clear off and I can do my best.”
DRS zone to be improved
Albon hopes the 2025 Belgian GP delivers a great race for spectators to watch. The Thai expressed his disappointment over the unchanged DRS zone length at Spa. Noting it’s too short to allow side-by-side racing, he believes it had been an issue carried from last year.
“I hope for you guys. But, I think the DRS zone is too short. I feel like we had this issue last year but they haven’t changed the DRS zone. So unfortunately you’re not getting any side-by-side action down into Turn 5.”
Delighted with what they achieved today
Pure-pace and speed wasn’t on Albon’s mind today. Instead, the Thai was extremely happy to have made it into Q3—P5 was a bonus.
“Well, I didn’t feel that quick. And I was like, honestly if I get to Q3 now, I’m happy. So that was it. I was happy with P10 and now we’re P5. So there we go, double punch.”
However, the Thai explained how he remains unhappy with the drivability of the car. Albon said, “I felt like when we took off the downforce we made the car much harder to drive. And the tyres weren’t lasting the whole lap.”. Despite that, a well-executed lap on the final run of Q3 when it mattered was extremely rewarding to Albon.
“So it was becoming harder and harder. You go quicker in sector 1 and sector 2 and then you go slower again. You never felt like you could get all the lap in one place. And then in Q3 I did, I got it all in one. So I was really happy.”
After a consecutive run of retirements, the Thai bounced back to score points at the British GP. A job half-completed, Albon is in a great position to walkaway from the Belgian GP with a decent points haul to add to his tally this weekend.
