Alex Albon predicts a tougher Chinese Grand Prix after a top-five finish in Australia, saying he is warning Williams cannot expect to pick up a big point scoring result with regularity.
Williams finished sixth in Melbourne and Albon throughout the weekend, with teammate Carlos Sainz also in the top 10. In wet and windy conditions, Albon finished fifth.
“To be honest, it was one of those really annoying races that didn’t feel comfortable,” Albon said. “The wind was holding a crazy gust of wind. The conditions were clearly very mixed. I wasn’t that confident in the race. That was to make sure you didn’t make any mistakes.
“There were moments in the race where I felt better and other moments, especially when the wind picked up, when I felt like I was losing performance compared to others. I think we really did the first race as a team that did it all.
“We did everything well to get it, showing us a great start and a big step since last year, and these results aren’t that much this year.
“We talked a lot about capitalizing internally in the early days within Williams. We’re using rookie drivers and stuff like that to get points right away. That’s exactly what we did.”
China has offered new tests during the sprint event, and weather forecasts suggest a dry, calm weekend, but Albon does not expect to be particularly competitive on the Shanghai International Circuit.
“Personally speaking, there’s less competition. I don’t think that’s very suitable for our cars either,” he said. “Suzuka, we’ll do our best again to be competitive, but let’s wait and see. I don’t think we really understand the pros and cons we’ve had so far.
“It was odd last year with Tarmac, and if you remember, it produced very random results. I think it’s resurfaced now.
“I think we’re still struggling with windy weather compared to others. China is not always windy, but it’s a pretty exposed truck.
“We know that mostly in history, our cars don’t like long corners. I think we’ve taken a big step in that area. Honestly, there’s a lot in China, so we’d like to know if it’s a sign that tells us if China will be better or not.”