“We want to be finishing fifth or fourth” - Alex Albon sets lofty target for Williams in the 2024 F1 season

Alex Albon recently spoke about how he wants to help Williams improve and make them a proper midfield team so that they can also fight for podiums and eventually race wins. The Thai driver is performing brilliantly on the British team and is determined to move ahead with them.

Speaking to RacingNews365, Alex Albon explained how he has been working on Williams' 2024 F1 car since April of 2023. From simulators to gradually eliminating balance issues the team's cars have had, Albon has been focusing on quite a lot when developing the next machine for the British team.

He said:

"I've [been] working on next year's car since April. This largely consists of simulator work, to try to mitigate some of these constant balance issues we've been having for the last four or five years. That's been a big focus for next year."

Later on, Albon explained the importance of developing next year's car early, which gives a team some buffer to make a massive jump forward in the future. He cited the example of Aston Martin and explained how they did something similar.

Alex Albon clearly stated that he and Williams want to at least finish fifth or fourth in the constructors' championship. On this, he added:

"It shows the ambition of the team. It shows where we think we need to improve, and that just doing upgrades through the year is not really going to get us to that point. Aston Martin is a great example of designating time and focusing on giving yourself a bit more of a buffer to improve the car.

"You need to think more long-term. We don't want to be finishing eighth in the Constructors', we want to be finishing fifth or fourth and that takes a big leap forward."

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Adrian Newey on how Alex Albon and other teammates of Max Verstappen struggled in Red Bull

Adrian Newey recently spoke about how Alex Albon and other former Red Bull drivers who raced alongside Max Verstappen struggled to keep up with the latter. In a recent episode of the Beyond the Grid podcast, the aero wizard of the Austrian-British team stated:

"I think Max [Verstappen] with his incredible ability has completely, not by any deliberate action, but I think Alex struggled to come to terms with how quick Max was, as did Pierre Gasly and other examples."

The Red Bull car at the time when Alex Albon was on the team was somewhat built around Max Verstappen, which had a lot of front-end sensitivity. Hence, it did not suit the driving style the Thai driver was comfortable with.