Williams’ Alex Albon has predicted it will be a “dogfight” for the rest of 2025 as several teams battle it out to be top of the midfield standings.
Albon and team mate Carlos Sainz endured a tough weekend in the Hungarian Grand Prix – finishing 15th and 14th respectively – with the Grove-based outfit failing to score for the first time in three races. While the squad remain fifth in the Teams’ Championship thanks to their strong early-season form, their advantage might not last long if they can’t rediscover some performance.
The team rolled the dice and started both drivers on the unfavoured soft compound tyre, which initially worked for Albon who managed to gain a couple of places off the line after starting last on the grid.
But despite splitting strategies and putting the Thai driver on the mediums for his second stint and Sainz on the hards, they could not make significant progress forward on a day where only one car retired.
“It was a very tough weekend. I came into this weekend optimistic, and I feel like we’re a little bit exposed around this track and the car didn’t really suit it,” Albon explained.
“We struggled in the race more than I thought we would. We need to do our homework because I know we would do a better job if we had another go at it. It’s going to be a dogfight for the rest of the year and it’s not going to be easy.
“I think we favour the lower downforce circuits and others probably favour the higher downforce ones, so we’ll see how it plays out. But I’m going to fight like hell to keep P5 in the Championship for us and I’m sure Carlos feels the same. It’s going to be a fight to the end.”
Albon has at least scored in the last two races, including a brilliant sixth at Spa – a track Williams have tended to go well at in recent history. Those two points finishes ended a run of three DNFs, but Sainz has only managed to score in two of the last seven Grands Prix.
The Spaniard came home just ahead of his team mate in Hungary, via a clash with Pierre Gasly’s Alpine that saw the Frenchman penalised.
“It was a cleaner weekend for us; it’s just a shame it’s not on a weekend where the car is strong,” he said. “P13 looked like the maximum, which is where we would’ve been without the incident with Gasly.
“We tried to do a one-stop but that was probably too optimistic going from the soft to the hard, but we tried to do something different before switching to the two-stop.
“I’m leaving the first half of the season slightly disappointed as we didn’t maximise the weekends where we were stronger, but hopefully the second half of the season is the other way around.”
The midfield has tightened up, as evidenced in Hungary by the tiny gaps between teams in Qualifying – hundredths of a second separating cars rather than tenths.
Aston Martin scored with both cars in Hungary, with Racing Bulls and Kick Sauber also picking up points. Haas and Alpine missed out – but Williams know they have a tough ask to hold onto fifth moving forward, especially with no more planned updates coming to the car for the rest of the season.
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