There was euphoria in one garage at the Miami Grand Prix as Lando Norris secured the first victory of his Formula 1 career after more than 100 attempts.
It was a well-deserved achievement for the British driver who was praised by many of his rivals once the chequered flag had flown.
Journalist Scott Mitchell-Malm was speaking on The Race Podcast about one driver who had a very different weekend.
Alpine scored their first point of the season through Esteban Ocon in Sunday’s race, leaving two manufacturers rooted to the bottom of the table.
Sauber will be rueing their early pit stop woes that denied Valtteri Bottas the chance to score points, while Zhou Guanyu was one position away from a top-eight finish in the Sprint Race in China.
The other team is Williams and while Logan Sargeant’s struggles have been widely reported, Alex Albon hasn’t been able to replicate his brilliant performances in 2023 this year.
Mitchell-Malm has said that Albon looked ‘as pessimistic’ as he’s ever seen in Miami after another tough weekend for Williams.
The Thai driver has a contract until the end of 2025 with the team but might need to start considering his options if things don’t improve soon.
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Williams driver Alex Albon looked so disappointed during Miami Grand Prix
It feels like a long time ago that Williams and AlphaTauri were battling it out during the season finale in Abu Dhabi at the end of last season to try and finish 7 in the Constructors Championship.
Yuki Tsunoda produced a brilliant drive – briefly leading the race – but it wasn’t enough to overtake Williams in the standings.
Heading into the 2024 season, Williams knew they had a huge amount of work to do and that meant making some sacrifices this year.
They couldn’t finish their spare chassis in time and that had dire consequences for Logan Sargeant as he had to give up his car to Albon in Australia after the 28-year-old wrecked his chassis in practice.
As soon as the American was back in the car in Japan he crashed into the barriers before Albon was taken out by Daniel Ricciardo during the Grand Prix.
In Miami, both Williams drivers were on the back row of the grid for the Sprint Race with Albon beaten in qualifying by his teammate for the first time.
Albon climbed up to 13 in the race and managed to get in Q2 for the Grand Prix, but only finished ahead of Kevin Magnussen on Sunday after the Danish driver picked up two penalties.
After 88 races, Albon appears to be struggling to hide his frustrations and will hope that the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix sees the team’s prospects improve.
Alex Albon can’t hide his disappointment after a tough start to 2024
Talking about another difficult weekend for Albon and Williams in Miami, Mitchell-Malm said: “It’s not a great position for Williams to be in at the moment and Alex Albon cut quite a frustrated figure over the Miami weekend.
“[It’s] probably about as pessimistic as I’ve seen him in his Williams time, to be honest.
“He’s not given up by any means and I still think that the feeling there is that they took one big step backwards over the winter and for the start of this year to take several steps forward over time.
“But, they’re still just playing catch up. We know the car that started this season was slightly undercooked, a better all-rounder than last year and a better baseline and a more workable car philosophy that you could then layer performance onto with upgrades.
“But the problem is, the gestation period over the winter was quite turbulent so it started the season in an even lesser form than it should have and then they haven’t been able to kick on with upgrades and development work throughout the year because of further knock-on effects of that difficult winter.”
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Williams Racing from team principal to Mercedes relationship
Could Alex Albon leave Williams at the end of 2024?
As explained before, Albon’s contract with Williams doesn’t expire until the end of next season.
However, he could move on sooner than that if another team wants him enough or if he decides he needs a change.
Albon is reportedly a target for Audi, who have already signed up Nico Hulkenberg for next year.
He could potentially return to Red Bull should Max Verstappen depart although that seems unlikely at this stage.
One pundit has even suggested that he might be an option for Toto Wolff at Mercedes as he looks to replace Lewis Hamilton. More weekends for Williams like Miami will have Albon questioning his future, even if the team are keen to build their future around him.
The post ‘Frustrated figure’: 88-race driver was ‘as pessimistic’ as he’s been at current F1 team in Miami – journalist appeared first on F1 Oversteer.
