After a positive Friday's running at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Williams are hopeful of scoring points for the second race in a row. Alex Albon finished as high as ninth in FP1 before dropping to 14th in FP2, while teammate Logan Sargeant finished 17th and 18th respectively on his first visit to Jeddah as an F1 driver. Albon finished 10th last time out in Bahrain, representing the first time that Williams have scored points in a season-opener since 2017, and the team's Head of Vehicle Performance, Dave Robson, says the Grove squad are hopeful of another strong outing in Jeddah. "It is clear what we need to do, and we already have enough experience of the FW45 that we are confident we can get it all together for qualifying," said Robson. "We appear to be in a tight group of teams, and we will need to maximise everything [on Saturday]. It won't be easy, but there is no reason we can't do it so that both drivers get an excellent chance of a strong qualifying session. "Whatever happens in qualifying, we had decent long run pace today, overtaking is easier than in Bahrain and we will be looking to increase our points tally on Sunday."
Albon and Sargeant upbeat on Jeddah prospects
Williams' solid start to the season comes despite significant changes behind the scenes at Grove, with James Vowles replacing Jost Capito for his first Team Principal role in F1. The team are also currently without a Technical Director, after FX Demaison left Williams over the winter following just one year in the role. Despite the upheaval at management level, Albon sounded confident in his ability to get the best out of the FW45. "I think it's been a very positive day and we've definitely got pace in the car, so I'm feeling optimistic," said Albon. "We're missing a little bit of set-up during FP2 for our qualifying simulation, but everything else feels pretty good. "I don't want to speak too soon but I'm feeling good with the car so let's see how it goes." After finishing his debut Grand Prix in Bahrain in 12th place, Sargeant also sounded happy with his Friday running in Jeddah. "For the first day in Jeddah, it went pretty smoothly, with everything going according to plan," Sargeant added. "The pace doesn't look too bad as a team and hopefully we can continue to build on that. "It's definitely a tricky and challenging circuit but I'm enjoying it, so hopefully I can continue to keep pushing and find a little bit more time [on Saturday]."
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