Alex Albon remained upbeat after the Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, despite failing to finish at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
The Thai driver had been challenging for the points during the first stint of the race and looked racy after the safety car restart, but was forced to retire with brake problems roughly halfway through the race.
Despite the disappointment of not claiming the points that were on the table, Albon is loving his new Williams car, especially given where they found themselves one year ago.
“It’s not fun driving this track without brakes!” Albon told the media. “It was frustrating this weekend, I felt really strong with the car.
“As a team, I’ve been really impressed. Coming from where we were last year to where it is this week has been such a pleasure to drive it.
“It’s frustrating because points don’t come often and this weekend we should have scored points but we haven’t.”
Melbourne repeat?
A year ago, Albon pulled off a remarkable strategy to complete almost the entire race on hard tyres and claim points for a much more inferior Williams team at the time.
This year, he is expected to have a far more competitive package underneath him, but he is not convinced they will have the same pace that saw him impress in qualifying in Saudi Arabia.
“There were about four laps where it was there for. I was just getting to the point where we could have overtaken (Nico) Hulkenberg but it fell away from me.
“I don’t think Melbourne will be bad for us but I don’t think it will be great either if I’m totally honest but let’s see.”
Albon’s teammate, Logan Sargeant, did not have the same race pace in his locker and he was passed on the final lap by Oscar Piastri in the McLaren, who suffered their own woes, while keeping Lando Norris behind him.
