Williams 'carrot' pointing towards solving expensive problem – Albon

Alex Albon has revealed that Williams' "carrot" is pointing towards facing the team's weight problem, with the FW46 still not being close to the outfit's target. 

Williams has opted for a different development strategy compared to 2023, to ensure that upgrades are introduced throughout the season. 

In 2023, Williams introduced just one huge package, whereas in 2024 the Grove-based team has opted for lots of smaller upgrades. 

An area continuing to be worked on is weight, which Albon stresses remains a key concern. 

However, introducing upgrades to reduce the car's weight in particular is very expensive, which makes the team have to choose between weight and aero upgrades. 

"There's still a lot of performance in weight," Albon told select media including RacingNews365. "We're still far away from where we want to be. 

"We do have upgrades coming though, that are performance as well. I would say the carrot at the moment is more towards the weight than the aero side and it is in some ways. 

"We are comparing the two, and seeing financially as well is a big thing around what makes sense, because losing weight isn't cheap as well."

'Different development path'

Something else Williams has taken into consideration with its development path is that the regulations remain the same for 2025. 

There is expected to be very little differences between the 2024 and the 2025 cars, as teams look ahead to the new power unit regulations in 2026. 

Because of this, Albon expects Williams to be stronger next season as they can take its developments into the new season. 

The significant area to address, though, is weight, and Albon knows that if that is dealt with then things will look very bright for the British team.

"I think at the minute, we are kind of in a slightly different development path," said Albon. "So this year, it's a little bit more smaller things each race, last year was one big step, which was this weekend last year. 

"In terms of development, it's still important, because really the regulations aren't changing next year. So whatever you gain from this year, you move on to next year. 

"The biggest thing for us as a team is honestly just to make sure we hit targets, weight targets, that would be our biggest step forward. So if we can get the fundamentals right, in that sense, we're going to make a big step as a team for next year."