r/WilliamsF1 • u/ItzLegitPlayz • 4d ago
Discussion What's up with Albon?
Albon seems to have lost all his confidence. He's a country mile behind of Sainz in terms of race pace, consistently gets outqualified and overall is not keeping up with even the expectations of the FW48, granted the thing combusts in front of his face every 5 seconds. What demons is haunting the poor dude?
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u/ufo_senshi_diapolon 4d ago
I agree that this year seems like a lost year for Alex. I hope he gets it back soon. This image (taken from the F1 sub) shows that his median race pace is actually slightly better than Sainz's
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u/NarrowFarm2036 4d ago
He's obv gonna have better race pace if he's pitting 5 times per race for softs.
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u/More_Oil_7210 4d ago
The race pace difference is the second smallest in the grid, literally only five hundredths of a second. If we take away Albon’s sole dramatic outlier (which is often done while cleaning data in data science for accurate representation), the pace advantage would shift to Sainz and be of a much larger magnitude.
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u/MaximumAsparagus 4d ago
Keep in mind that unlike the other race pace accts, which do a bunch of data processing to find clean air pace on similar tires and also control for degradation and fuel consumption, this acct just averages all the laps and calls it a day. For example, the big outlier in Albon's favor is Baku, where in the first stint Carlos ran the mediums (which were completely dreadful for everyone) and Alex ran the softs. Alex crashed before he had to put on the mediums, so of course his pace looks better. (He was I think genuinely faster -- even on softs Carlos was not having that easy of a time -- but not THAT much faster.)
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u/hawkeye807 4d ago
The race pace is not bad, it is in qualifying where the difference really manifests.
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u/ufo_senshi_diapolon 4d ago
Agreed. If only one of them makes it out of Q1, it seems to always be Sainz
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u/Hungry_Service_5810 4d ago
Not been a great year of form, but he took a while to adapt to the car and was regularly within a tenth if not outqualifying Sainz on Saturday for a good stretch in the middle of the year
Last 3 weekends of the triple header, he's complaining about the brakes, partially caused his crash in Baku, and he's had to use some non-perfect parts since then, combination of that and the brakes is why he's been such slower in quali recently but his race pace is still equal if not better than Carlos
But yeah he needs to fix his qualis, hopefully once the brakes and the parts get fixed he can be back up there
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u/No_Society3117 4d ago
I wonder if that stretch of early races where Williams sort of gave up on his race and turned it into a test session did a number on his mojo. I know I'd be taken out of it if my teammate was allowed to race normally even with the same shit car while I was effectively retired early to be a guinea pig
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u/Metal_Blaster_is_BIS 4d ago
A lot of good drivers are struggling with this years car, basically you have to under drive shit out of them in the corners to recharge. So for many of the drivers it can be a struggle to under drive the car every single lap.
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u/RealCarlPanzram 4d ago
Is he that far off the pace of Sainz? Haven’t paid much attention because it’s Williams, who gives a shit at this point. But I don’t feel like he’s miles off? They both seem the sneak into Q2 when the timing is right and they get a decent lap.
Overall I think Sainz is just a better driver than Albon. This seemed apparent last season once Sainz got his footing in the Williams. Seems like this is just a continuation of the trend.
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u/SouffleComposer 4d ago edited 4d ago
Sainz has now outqualified Albon 13-4 and is on average 3 tenths faster than him in quali. That’s not a negligible difference and not a great look for Albon. People keep trying to find excuses to minimize the difference like saying Albon is driving a shitbox. But Sainz has also been driving a shitbox, so that excuse makes no sense.
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u/newtybar 3d ago
Sainz was running the upgrades a lot sooner than Albon consistently at the tail end of last year. Sainz has a slight edge but Albon isn’t as far behind as that 3 tenths stat makes it seem.
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u/Substantial_Metal_15 2d ago
Did you forget Sainz is a multi race winner and able to consistently go toe to toe with Charles who was always prioritised over Carlos because he is a Ferrari prodigy? People who think Sainz and Albon are close are just haters or plain delusional. Last year Sainz had terrible luck for the first half of the season and Albon had AMAZING luck where he was able to luck out in the top 7 for quite a few races.
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u/frelluska 4d ago
i guess baku upgrades made his car uncontrollable ?
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u/ItzLegitPlayz 4d ago
Even before Baku he was struggling keeping up to Sainz though
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u/Minecraft_gamer42 4d ago
He was always like that imo (will get downvoted to hell)
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u/Top-Treat4127 4d ago
last season he absolutely destroyed sainz lmao
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u/Larkness2 4d ago
I wasn’t aware finishing ahead by only 9 points was considered “destroying” someone. How interesting.
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u/NarrowFarm2036 4d ago
Last season is literally only gonna be remembered for Sainz's Qatar and Baku podiums. Nobody destroyed shi.
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u/Top-Treat4127 4d ago
even with 2 podiums sainz finished behind albon on points. if that’s not destroying idk what is
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u/AquaRaOne 4d ago
It was sainz first year in williams, sure albon destroyed him the first half, but once he was comfortable, sainz was the clear better driver on awerage so its kind of an even year performance wise
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u/NarrowFarm2036 2d ago
First year with the team, new engine manufacturer, new workmates, everthing new... barely ahead on points with no podiums for Albon. Yeah you def DON'T know what destroying means
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u/gilded_lady 4d ago
I feel like its a little of everything- struggle to adapt, bad car/upgrades, bad luck.
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u/Big_Equivalent457 4d ago
Ever since the start of 2026/mid 2025 Development & James has nothing about it but Overdazzling
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u/ladyofhousepounce 4d ago
From what I understand as well is that they have different set ups to test things for next season. Could be just the set up isn’t good or what others have said about new upgrades and wonky parts.
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u/Existing-Key-2715 4d ago
hes just unlucky this season i feel like. every time he performs well something uncontrollable just happens to him like canada. they were good in sepang too until the strategy went wrong and he dnfed
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u/SaintJudy 3d ago
My theory is that Williams have been using Alex as the test car while they’ve been figuring out how to try and make the best of it. There’s been too many dnfs, things breaking and strange strategies
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u/Ok_Recognition_5578 3d ago
Struggled to adapt more than Sainz. His one lap pace has never been great compared to extending race stints.
You are right to say he’s not kept up with the expectations of the FW48 but right now it doesn’t matter so much where you qualify because the car simply doesn’t have the pace to stay in the top 10 so nobody is scoring points without others ahead DNF ing.
You are also right to say about the thing combusting, for both of them have had to manage issues during both Quali and Race multiple times this season.
I think it’s more he’s given up on this year the body language and interview tone is more acceptance: “Why bother making amazing moves or getting into risky situations if we’re not gonna score anyways and my races are just gonna end up being used for testing” plus this is a team that can’t afford any unnecessary crash damage.
You gotta remember to despite the contract extension Sainz has a lot more market value than Albon he has to keep proving to the rest of the grid he’s still got at it as it keeps his options open Albon has no other option he’s stuck at Williams now (and he knows it) and if Sainz does decide to trigger an exit clause they will need 1 experienced driver at least.
What matters more is that if next years car is much better and he’s still lagging behind costing them points thats when your seat is under threat but if he picks up the results needed next year when they are on the table he’ll be fine
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u/Jazzlike-Text-4100 3d ago
The new regs have low grip than the previous regulations so driving style matters like those of Albon and Piastri that shine through latebreaking and car grip. The previous regs had more downforce and grip in them. Further, Sainz seems to be the better driver at Williams than Alex.
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u/Shirt_4855 2h ago
Albon is Williams. He knows the car is not going to make wonders and he is experimenufor next year. Sainz is not as talented as Albon
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u/mattp1229 3d ago
The better question is whats up with top teams not realizing sainz is a top 6 driver. I feel bad for him, he has the legacy and the looks and the drive and somehow hes stuck in a Williams. Do we know the last time a driver of his level was stuck in a backmarker team this long?
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u/frenchiephish 3d ago
I don't think there's any question of talent there - his departure from Ferrari was just incredibly poorly timed for him, where does he go? There are only 6-8 seats at the pointy end of the sport. The problem is the gaps at the top are very small, and a brief lull in form reorders the top ten pretty quickly. I don't know if I'd firmly say consistent top 6, but I would definitely say some of the time and very much top 10, and with a bit of float depending on the season.
Antonelli was the wildcard entry for the top 8 and this season has shown that gamble was wise. I suspect Sainz would've done similar to George in that seat, but who knows. In any case, Mercedes made a gamble, and it looks like it's going to be pay huge dividends. If Verstappen decided to move there, I suspect Russell is going to find himself in the same place Sainz was in 2024.
Red Bull's second seat was, in a word, chaos until Horner and Marko got the flick. As a team they still seem committed to bringing talent on the Red Bull way rather than bringing it in from outside. Can only see that changing if Verstappen departs.
McLaren appear firmly committed to their driver lineup at present; Piastri is definitely having an off-season in 26, some of it is bad luck, but inarguably struggling with these regs and despite that he's still comfortably in the top seven on points - another example of the rankings being pretty flexible.
Ferrari were the ones who dropped him for Hamilton
Sainz' way back into a top seat is unfortunately an upset change, McLaren with a surprise driver drop, Hamilton retiring, Verstappen moving to Mercedes.
Plenty of drivers come through the sport with a lot of talent, and do amazing things without ever winning a championship despite deserving one. Bottas is arguably the best example of it, the most pole positions without a WDC, the second-most career points of any driver and the most by any driver without a WDC.
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u/dgdm24 4d ago
This may be a controversial but I’ve never considered Alex a good driver. I’ve been a Williams fan since Damon and jack back in the day so it hurts me that we don’t have 2 quality drivers but yeah.. I’ve tried to like him but both on the track and off the track he seems unlikable Imo. Nothing against him or his fans but I would rather have other drivers on the grid than him tbh..
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u/newtybar 3d ago
Weird, by all peer comments and from folks in the industry he’s one of the most well liked. Seems like your personal bias is clouding your picture on that front.
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u/liveforeachmoon 4d ago
He certainly does seem slow, incident prone and very whiney on the radio.
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u/Hungry_Service_5810 4d ago
None of those 3 are true.
He's incident prone because he's a bad luck magnet, everyone seems to forget how to to drive around him going back to Hamilton hitting him in his RB days, and the team has literally pushed him to be more whiny on the radio
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u/booooogart 4d ago
Was never a good driver, simply looked good vs really bad teammates. He's average at best. Sainz is a level above. Sainz moving to Williams was always going to expose Albon.
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u/ohNoeeeSaveus 4d ago
Which is why Albon lead the points, despite not getting a single podium... oh wait...
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u/NarrowFarm2036 4d ago
Barely leading the points when your teammate is new to the team, different engine manufacturer, etc. is NOT a flex, especially when he got 2 podiums which is the only thing that will last over the years from 2025 season.
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u/dgdm24 3d ago edited 2d ago
lol people here are glazing albon so much. You got downvoted for speaking the facts just like me well… anyways… time will tell and mostly he will fade away and forgotten as many drivers..
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u/SouffleComposer 3d ago
Just another example of how nobody’s allowed to criticize Albon, he’s one of reddit’s darlings for whatever reason. This comment section is full of people reaching for as many excuses as they can to downplay Sainz’s performance and are so loath to admit that he’s been performing better than Albon this year.
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u/dgdm24 2d ago
Couldn’t have said it better 🤝. I do admit Carlos hasn’t been performing to his best this year but he is performing miles above Albon. Also, I don’t understand why Alex is so cherished here… I see all the pres, post and whatever in between races and in all the interviews he comes as not empathetic at best, arrogant at worst.
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u/Mother-Mastodon5780 4d ago
I think it’s kind of in line with Piastri‘s struggle, this generation of cars makes them drive counterintuitively, which seems to affect them the most imo. They lost their natural driving strength, and cant adapt as well as others.