Looking ahead to 2025, Williams has made a major move by signing Carlos Sainz, a driver capable of elevating the team’s performance in a highly competitive midfield.
However, before focusing on the future, Williams is taking stock of their recently concluded season, particularly regarding their expectations versus the reality of their performance. According to Alex Albon, 2024 represents a missed opportunity, largely due to decisions made over the winter that hindered the team not only at the start of the season but throughout the championship.
Williams began the year with an FW46 significantly over the minimum weight limit due to design decisions. Since 2019, Williams cars have consistently struggled with excess weight, but this issue has become even more critical in the current technical regulations. As a result, the team prioritized addressing the chassis weight, which had been well above the minimum in previous seasons.
The Overweight Chassis Problem
This focus was also a forward-looking strategy, aiming to ensure the chassis wouldn’t remain a limiting factor in 2025 when other areas would need development. However, during chassis validation, delays piled up, leaving the team without a spare chassis for the early races. This led to complications, such as Logan Sargeant being forced to sit out in Australia to provide his car to Albon.
These delays also impacted other car components, which ended up overweight. Concentrating on the chassis design and production meant sacrifices in other areas, affecting both budget and performance. Williams had to carefully allocate resources, often choosing between weight reduction and aerodynamic performance. While components like the front wing achieved both goals, other areas required compromises.
This ripple effect delayed development plans, as reducing the car’s weight became a top priority. Only after this issue was addressed did the team shift focus to other parts of the car, such as the floor and sidepods. Their first significant update package only arrived after the summer break, during the Dutch Grand Prix.
A Season of Playing Catch-Up
This late upgrade briefly boosted Williams’ competitiveness in the midfield before rival teams introduced their own updates, regaining the upper hand. These challenges, combined with costly operational errors and crashes, left Albon viewing 2024 as a missed chance for Williams, which ultimately finished ninth in the standings.
According to the Anglo-Thai driver, Williams should have scored far more points early in the season, potentially enabling them to challenge teams like Alpine, Haas, and Racing Bulls. However, the weight issues were too severe to allow such ambitions. “My overall feeling about this season is one of missed opportunity,” Albon said.
He added: “It’s easy to focus on the crashes at the end of the year, but we started with an overweight car. We should have scored far more points early on. At Monaco, where weight mattered less, the car’s potential was clear, and we were competitive enough to fight for points.”
“If we’d started with a better baseline, like Aston Martin did, even if we had dropped off later, it still would have been a solid season. But that didn’t happen. Personally, I think we could have scored many more points early on.”
Albon highlighted the mid-season as Williams’ strongest period, with standout performances at races like Monza, Baku, and Singapore. But by the end of the season, other teams had caught up, leaving Williams unable to sustain their momentum.
“The main issue was the weight. Despite bad luck and several crashes, the weight problem feels like the bigger missed opportunity at the start of the year,” Albon explained.
Impact of Crashes on Resources
The Dutch Grand Prix updates significantly improved the FW46’s performance, allowing Williams to fight for points on tracks that suited their car. However, not all opportunities were converted into results, and the numerous crashes during the season strained resources further.
For example, in the first half of the year, Albon’s chassis had to be repaired twice, diverting time and energy from other areas of development. By the end of the season, due to frequent incidents, reserve driver Franco Colapinto was forced to run an older-spec car.
Reflecting on the year, Albon noted there wasn’t a single standout race for Williams, but rather a few solid performances that went under the radar. “Unfortunately, we didn’t have a highlight race. We had a few solid performances early in the season where finishing 12th or 13th felt like a good result,” he said.
“Silverstone was a good race overall, from start to finish. Baku went well, too. Canada should have been better, but we made mistakes. It feels like a year of missed opportunities.”
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