Albon had to 'bite lip' over poor Williams form

Alex Albon has revealed why he was forced to "bite my lip" when faced with questions around Williams' poor start to 2024. 

Team principal James Vowles embarked on a large-scale revamp of the team in his first winter in charge, with modifications made to car-build and design processes, but the FW46 proved slow at the start of the season, as well as overweight. 

The car was mired in the gaggle of five teams at the rear of the field, with only two chassis available. Logan Sargeant was benched in Australia by Vowles after Albon damaged his car in a practice crash, and which could not be repaired trackside. 

Despite this, Albon was vocal in explaining how the car had improved out of a narrow operating window but has now revealed how, despite those comments, he was hiding his true feelings.

"It was very hard because [the media] was asking me: 'What is different about this year's car?', and I was telling you that 'It's better,'" Albon told media including RacingNews365. 

"But we were running around in P19, P20 so I had to bite my lip a little, but there are still things we need to improve. 

"There is no denying that but it was very hard to answer your questions."

The Thai-Briton, who banked Williams' first points of the season with a ninth-place finish in Monaco, believes the team has now emerged from its troubles and will be on an even keel heading into 2025.

"Big changes are coming in, but no one sees it," added Albon. "You put a huge amount of work into the factory that shows a new way of working, and things got delayed as a result.

"Now we've gone through that pain, I think now and next year, we are going to be optimised, but you can still do more and I don't believe we are going to be overweight next year. 

"We'll start level to everyone else [in terms of weight]."