Last year’s Williams FW45 was noted for its top speed, which allowed it to shine on certain tracks and propel Albon into the points.
But for 2024, the Grove outfit has tried to develop a car that is more consistently competitive at a range of circuits.
That in turn has seen the car lose the straightline advantage that it has previously enjoyed, with Albon noting in Jeddah that he now had to do his overtaking in the corners, rather than on the straights.
Albon, who just made it into Q2 in Suzuka and lines up 14th on the grid for Sunday’s race, admitted that the car was not well-suited to the track, and that had prompted a search for more speed on the straights.
“I would say there's a couple of areas with this year's car that are slightly worse than last year's,” he said. “Not many, but there are, and this track has a lot of those corners, these kind of longer, medium/high-speed corners.
“So we're struggling a bit more in sector one. But at the same time, honestly if you look at our straight-line speed, it's no a secret, we've got less of wing than everyone else. So I hope it helps us in the race. We kind of gone down a skinny wing choice this weekend.
“We feel like the last couple races we could have been a bit skinnier than we were. So we've been a bit braver this weekend, and done it. So let's see if it pays off [in the race].”
Source: Autosport