Albon rues missed opportunity in Saudi Arabia as he describes car as ‘the best it’s felt’ since joining Williams

Alex Albon felt there was “a lot of potential” in the Williams package around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit last weekend, only for his Saudi Arabian Grand Prix efforts to end through a terminal brake problem.

Albon started the weekend with the ninth fastest time in FP1, before a tight qualifying session that he and the team “didn’t quite get right” left him P17 on the grid – with plenty of work to do on race day.

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But after climbing to 13th position and knocking on the door of points, Albon reported a brake failure over the radio and was forced to retire from proceedings just beyond the halfway mark.

Reflecting on Williams’ mixed weekend, Albon said: “It’s not been that tough, it’s a lot of positives to take from it. It’s the best the car has felt since my time driving at Williams, so that’s very positive.

“It’s more frustrating because we had a lot of potential in the car this weekend, and we couldn’t use it. It’s just [in] qualifying we didn’t quite get it right. But in the race we were fine, we were back to where we normally are.”

Dave Robson, Williams’ Head of Vehicle Performance, echoed Albon’s sentiments as he commented: “The pace was good [during the race] and Alex had a good chance of finishing in the top 10.

“Unfortunately, he was forced to retire with an issue in the mechanical brake system, which we will investigate and fix before the next race.

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“This is a shame as a lot of good work was done here and [at the factory] in Grove on Friday evening to prepare the cars for the race.

“We can take a lot of positives away from this weekend but at the same time we missed a good opportunity to score some more points and we must make some improvements to succeed in a very tight midfield.”

Albon’s team mate, Logan Sargeant, took the chequered flag between the two McLaren drivers in 16th – Oscar Piastri passing him on the final lap and Lando Norris just missing out on the run to the line.