In the round-up: Alexander Albon says the first part of the 2024 season has been tough for Williams as they haven’t brought any significant upgrades for their car.
In brief
2024 season “disappointing” so far – Albon
Albon described his season so far as “disappointing”, saying Williams’ lack of upgrades explains why they are only ninth in the championship.
“We’ve been on the back foot from the very beginning,” he told the official F1 channel. “We were late with our car and we’ve been paying the price the whole season so far. That’s about it.”
He is hopeful the team will begin to make progress with its car when the season resumes.
“We haven’t had many, if any, upgrades this season so far, so we’ve been on the back foot. Hopefully we’re pushing hard at the factory. Everyone’s working really hard. Of course, there’s a bit of a break right now, but time will tell.
“If we can get our first proper upgrade on the car at the beginning when we come back I think we can fight for points a bit more regularly.”
Alonso needs break after “six consecutive weekends”
Fernando Alonso was relieved to go into the summer break following a busy end to the first part of the season.“The last six weeks were intense,” said the Aston Martin driver. “We have five races, we had the Goodwood Festival in the middle as well, so six consecutive weekends. Definitely, we need a break, especially the mechanics, everyone travelling, back to back races.
“It’s good to have a break now. It’s going to be a demanding second part of the year. Hopefully we can take some lessons from these last couple of races and come back stronger.”
Vandoorne and Ocon test at Spa
Stoffel Vandoorne and Esteban Ocon began two days of testing for Pirelli at Spa-Francorchamps.
Aston Martin’s reserve driver had his first outing in their AMR24 and logged 92 laps, setting a best time of 1’45.561. Ocon did 97 laps and got his best time down to 1’44.445. Vandoorne will continue to drive tomorrow while Ocon will hand over to Jack Doohan, who drove Alpine’s 2022 car in a separate test at the same track.
Softest tyres for trio of races
Pirelli will bring its softest range of tyres for the Italian, Azerbaijan and Singapore grands prix. This is the same allocation it brought to the events last year, though Baku’s round of the world championship will take place five months later than in 2023.
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Links
F1 bosses lobbying to join Olympics (Daily Mail)
'Spotted among IOC bigwigs this week has been Frenchman Jean Todt, the former FIA president. He is no fan of his successor, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, and vice-versa. Asked if Todt was campaigning on the FIA's behalf, the response from his old organisation was a firm 'non'.'
Kubica uncertain about staying with AF Corse for 2025 (Sportscar 365)
'It’s not a secret from my side that I put a lot of focus on Le Mans. For me, it’s the race, and I want to have the opportunity to race there in a competitive package.'
McLaren, Foyt counting the costs from July chaos (Racer)
'We actually had to change tubs on the number seven after the Iowa crash that Alex had. So that’s three tubs out of circulation in two weekends.'
James Roe Jnr did four Indy Nxt races with broken hand without realising (Formula Scout)
'In between the crashes and the fracture diagnosis he had spun out of the race at Road America, come fifth in race one at Laguna Seca and retired from race two with a suspension issue, then finished a lap down at Mid-Ohio after clashing with team-mate Jamie Chadwick.'
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I took one video of the F2 race and it was this moment 😭 pic.twitter.com/tFMA8Y3Jyo
— Maithe³ || missing spa and danny (@maithe_schobben) July 27, 2024
Jack completes his day of testing in the A522 👊 pic.twitter.com/DZZU5btIGX
— BWT Alpine F1 Team (@AlpineF1Team) July 30, 2024
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Comment of the day
George Russell’s Belgian Grand Prix strategy was a gamble, but a logical one, argues @Hotbottoms:
Russell made a good call and executed it very well. But let’s be honest: the decision to commit to a one-stop strategy was much easier for him.
Pitting a second time would’ve dropped Russell to sixth with little chance of overtaking the cars ahead. The worst-case scenario with committing to a one-stop strategy for Russell was finishing eighth*. So, the difference between the default strategy and the worst-case scenario in the alternative strategy wasn’t that significant.
Compare that to Hamilton, who was leading the race before the second round of pit stops.
*Well, actually the worst-case scenario was disqualification, but Russell didn’t know that.
@Hotbottoms
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Egc and Osvaldas31!
Jere (@jerejj)
31st July 2024, 7:00
The early-season crash damages have also largely impacted car development, given budget cap constraints.
SteveP
31st July 2024, 8:08
Shush, telling Albon that he’s a big part of the problem of heavy workload, won’t please him at all.
Probably didn’t do Sergeants career prospects any good either, although that may have been a bit of a thin thread anyway.
Simon
1st August 2024, 0:01
“Early-season crash damages have also largely impacted car development”
No, really? I mean really? Like how roads are wet after rain fall?
cdfemke (@cdfemke)
31st July 2024, 9:56
Wait… they didnt have enpugh spare parts in the beginning of the season. And their excuse was that they chose not to make those because that budget was already spent on upgrades that would roll out during the year.
And now they are saying those upgrades don’t excist?
Good luck Sainz… if management doesnt change at Williams you made the wrong move i am afraid :(
Nick T.
31st July 2024, 11:54
They’re in the process of renovating literally everything… Not sure how people still don’t get this. When Vowles got to Williams they were still using early 2000s size autoclaves and processes to make parts. They had ZERO system for tracking which parts were where in their production process or even simply where they were. They had 40% less staff. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
There’s a reason large ship metaphors are a cliche when it comes to discussion of what it takes to turn around an F1 team. Even when teams do get new facilities, they’re not plug and play. Everything needs to be fine tuned, correlated, etc. The difference between the Williams of today and the Sirotkin-Stroll era is already night and day. Luckily, for Sainz if he’s still, the majority of this process should be done by the time they go into 2026.
They also have some low hanging fruit for 2025. Namely, weight. Their car is overweight and it’s the simplest problem to fix.
Nick T.
31st July 2024, 11:55
if he’s still there*
SteveP
31st July 2024, 20:06
Not quite right. Albon said “We haven’t had many, if any, upgrades this season so far…”
Past tense: “had”
and they may be coming: …so far…”
Of course, they might have got further in making upgraded parts if they weren’t so busy making new sets to replace what Albon broke. :(