Austrian GP: Frustrating Sprint for Williams Racing
By Williams Racing
July 2 2023
The Sprint for the 2023 Austrian GP would see the Williams Racing Team drivers Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant finish in 13th and 18th. The race would be started under wet track conditions but the track was starting to dry. For Alex and Logan they would both start the race on the intermediate tyres and for Alex after a great start would see him running inside the points. For Logan he was down in 18th and starting what was a fairly lonely race. As the track continued to dry the team would make the decision to pit Alex seeing him drop out of the points and unfortunately who not recover this position as he tried to recover on the medium dry tyres. A frustrating day for the team as there was a good chance of a points finish. But next is Sunday's race with the potential for a good result.
Williams Racing
Austrian GP Sprint Review
Logan Sargeant:
"It was honestly a decent race. The first lap was tricky with the
amount of spray from starting at the back but I managed it. I made a few
good overtakes and felt comfortable in the wet. I think we boxed a
little bit too late for the slick tyre at the end to really make it
count. It was good learning and I have reference for next time of when I
can switch off that tyre. Nevertheless, a good fight with the AlphaTauri
guys towards the end of the race. Starting from P20 was always going to
be tough but it was a fun race. I think we have a good race car going
into tomorrow, so we’ll do our best to make something work with the
strategy. I’ll also do my best to make some good moves, and hopefully we
can get as far forward as possible."
Alex Albon:
"It’s a frustrating way to finish what started as a good sprint
race, with a great start. I was comfortable, managing quite a lot with
Ocon behind me as he was fighting with Charles, so I had margin to save
my tyres with a nice buffer. With tyres left on the inters, whilst
obviously not being as quick as the cars behind us, I felt comfortable
enough to stay there. I think with the Mercedes’ performing well on the
slicks, we thought it was the right choice to pit but it didn’t work. At
the end of the day, Ocon finished P7 so we could’ve had two P7’s in a
row and 2 points is a big deal for us but it didn’t work, so we’ll look
ahead to tomorrow and try refocus."
Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance:
"Despite
a reasonably good day, the result in the end was very frustrating. Alex
qualified well in the shootout and had an excellent opening lap in the
damp conditions. We should’ve left him out on the inters but we were
expecting more degradation than there actually was. We could’ve got a
point or two today, so we need to have a look at what we did. With
Russell finishing so close to Ocon, it would’ve been a very tight
finish, but we should’ve had more confidence in our ability to manage
the intermediate tyre.
Logan had a frustrating formation lap, stuck behind Bottas who was on
the slick tyre, and this prevented him from getting a good sense of the
conditions. Nonetheless, he had a good race and showed some strong pace.
Crucially, it gave some more valuable experience on running the Pirelli
slicks in damp conditions, which build on his experience in Canada, and
will serve him well in the future.
We now return our attention to the Grand Prix, which looks likely to be
held in dry conditions. Alex qualified well on Friday and we now have
another chance of a strong result."
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