“Our race is to make sure Haas and Alfa don’t score” – Albon

Alexander Albon said his aim for the United States Grand Prix is to stop Haas and Alfa Romeo from scoring points and closing on Williams in the constructors’ championship.

The Haas drivers took 14th and 16th on the grid. However they will start from the pit lane after switching to different rear wing specifications from today’s race.

The three teams are battling for seventh in the championship. Williams hold the position on 23 points, seven ahead of Alfa Romeo, with Haas another four behind. With five grands prix and one sprint race remaining, a strong result for any of the three teams could tip the balance.

Albon says Williams need to prioritise containing the threat from their rivals in today’s grand prix.

“Our race is not so much for the points, our race is to make sure the Haas and the Alfas don’t score points,” Albon told media including RaceFans after yesterday’s sprint race.

“Let’s see what we can do because we have pace so we can be frustrating, we can get in people’s way.”

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Despite his disadvantageous starting position, Albon believes the race conditions will suit Williams more. He came within half a second of scoring points in Saturday’s sprint race and finished ahead of both Haas and Alfa Romeo drivers.

“I do think we’re quicker than them on race pace, at least we were today,” Albon said yesterday. “The big thing about today compared to yesterday was the track temp dropped, so it’s made us much quicker.

“Tomorrow I think it’s quite cool, but the wind’s picking up quite a lot, that scares me a bit, so let’s see.”

He was only four tenths of a second away from taking the final point from George Russell yesterday due to the Mercedes driver’s five-second time penalty. Albon admitted the result was a bow as the sprint race was likely their biggest chance of scoring points in Austin.

“We went for this one because obviously today looked much stronger than yesterday,” he said. “So we put the new tyres on and we gave ourselves the best chance to try to score points. Put our eggs in the Saturday basket.

“But just to miss out, it’s so tight out there – frustrating. At the same time, I think it was a good race you can’t discredit that. I think it’s just to finish P9 is what makes it frustrating.”

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2023 United States Grand Prix

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