Wiliams driver Alex Albon sits P8 in the World Drivers’ Championship ahead of the F1 Belgian GP. Despite a strong start to the 2025 season, Williams have started to fall behind other teams in the midfield. Albon managed to finish in the points at the British GP after failing to make Q3 in qualifying.
Prior to Silverstone, Albon had an unfortunate run of luck with three consecutive DNFs. Mechanical failures ended his races in Canada and Austria. With Williams bringing upgrades to the F1 Belgian GP, Albon aims to score another points finish.
Williams brings upgrade package to F1 Belgian GP
Teams such as Sauber have shown that upgrades in such a close-knit midfield can be quite advantageous. Nico Hulkenberg even managed to score his first podium at the F1 British GP.
Williams began to struggle at the Spanish GP, which marked the first race the team failed to score points this season. While this race introduced the ban on flexi-wings, Albon asserted that Williams was not affected by the rule change. Albon hopes that Williams can maintain their status as “best of the rest,” with the team bringing upgrades to the F1 Belgian GP.
“I would say it’s more upgrades from other rivals than anything else. I think the flexi-wing, to us honestly, didn’t change much. At the same time, we started to run into these issues with the car overheating.
“We saw it in a couple of races, but we need to figure out why it suddenly started to happen consistently in the midpoint of the season. That’s when Sauber put their big upgrade. Haas have been putting a few up already. RB and then Aston had their big upgrade. We’re the last to to join the party. We’ve got it for this weekend, so let’s see.”
FW47’s cooling problems remains unresolved
Williams Team Principal James Vowles has stated that cooling problems are affecting the FW47’s performance. Notably, Williams suffered a double DNF at the Austrian GP with Sainz failing to start the race. Albon stated that the team is still working to manage these issues ahead of the F1 Belgian GP.
“It’s still an area that we need to fix. We have containments in place, but they are containments. They do give up some performance on the table to contain them.
“We do need to get on top of it, especially with the midfield being so tight.“
Albon: Williams has been the “best midfield team at scoring points”
Despite the current issues, Albon still feels that Williams has the strongest car in the midfield ahead of the F1 Belgian GP. Williams currently sits P5 in the World Constructors’ Championship, 18 points ahead of Sauber.
“We left points on the table with DNFs. But in terms of results, I would say we’ve been the best midfield team at scoring points.
“I think, if you have to look at these last few races, it’s more like a mechanical issue that we’ve had to fix on the car. This is, obviously, talking purely on my side. But we’ve been very consistent, I would say, other than that.”
