F1 Monza qualifying – Carlos Sainz draws level, Alex Albon: “The problem is always the same, we tried everything”
Williams’ hopes came crashing down in qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, where Carlos Sainz finished in P13 while Alex Albon could do no better than P14.
The Grove-based team had looked impressive in free practice, consistently featuring in the top three during both FP1 and FP2. However, when it mattered most in qualifying, neither driver managed to repeat that performance. In the end, it was Alex Albon who suffered more, lining up P14 just behind his teammate Carlos Sainz, who edged ahead in their intra-team battle.
Williams had arrived at Monza showing great promise, with many expecting them to be a genuine contender for a spot in the top ten. Instead, both Sainz and Albon saw their qualifying run end prematurely. The Thai driver managed to clear Q1 but then had to settle for P14 in Q2. The driver of car #23 will start right behind his Spanish teammate on the grid.
“I think the car is still quick,” Albon said in his post-qualifying interviews. “It’s the same car we had in FP1 and FP2. The issue, once again, is with the tyres and getting them into the right operating window. This weekend we really tried everything with outlaps and preparation laps.”
“In free practice we can do push laps, we can try straight away: the tyres don’t work on the first lap. Then we do two cooldown laps, go again, and the tyres get warmer, start to work better, and that’s when they feel good. But in qualifying you have minimum time limits to respect, you’re forced to push immediately, and we just can’t get the tyres to bite on the first attempt.”
“In fact, to get the tyres up to temperature in Q2, I was basically forced to go out in the middle of everyone else’s push laps just to get a free launch lap. I had to do an outlap about 15 seconds quicker than the others. And even then, I didn’t get the warm-up I wanted because I had to let all the cars on fast laps go by. Then, when it was time to start mine, I ended up overtaking six cars in a single lap.”
“So in the end, if you think about it, the real problem is the tyres and the fact that we are forced to do things differently from the others. We can’t just queue up in the pitlane and follow the same routine. It’s frustrating, but that’s the situation we have,” Alex Albon admitted.
“Maybe earlier in the season we had a bit more margin in terms of performance. In Q1 or Q2, even if the tyres weren’t perfect, we could still go through. Now the midfield level is so tight that you need every tenth to make it into Q3. If the tyres don’t work immediately, you’re out,” he concluded.
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