After the flag in Italy, Vowles came on to the radio to tell Albon that he “made it look easy” while his engineer acknowledged that it was the Thai/British driver’s best race yet with the team.
In achieving both of his 2023 seventh-place finishes, Albon made good use of the strong straightline performance of the FW45 to conduct a stout defence.
However, Vowles stressed that it was easier to do that in Montreal than in Monza, where the driver in front is more vulnerable.
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Despite that, Albon stayed ahead of quicker cars for many laps, and successfully kept Lando Norris behind at the flag.
“I think in Montreal there is actually really only one overtaking point,” Vowles told Autosport. “And if you get your exit right there, and do the right things, you can stop it.
“In Monza there are the three or four areas where you can quite easily lose position. And in fact, you did see Alex lose position but, when he did, he positioned himself straight away for the repass.
“So he was very much in control of what he was doing in that race, and the result was very much the reward of seventh place. It would have been easy to lose one, and then those three positions, and he never did.
“Again, if we go back to Montreal, we were fortunate in some regards, it was Esteban [Ocon] behind with the ‘wobbly’ rear wing.
“Here, you had Lando who was at some points three tenths behind on the run down to Turn 1. And yet Alex finished in front.”
Source: Autosport