Williams Racing has good baseline car in FW45

As the Williams Racing Team prepares for the opening practice session of the 2023 Miami Grand Prix team driver Alex Albon was able to talk with media about how he felt in regard to where the team was at and also in regard to the potential for Williams on another street circuit this time in Miami

So far 2023 has seen the Williams FW45 perform well on the street circuits that they have run from Australia through to Baku. Alex spoke of how these features of these tracks with the majority having quite a few longer straights with tight turns. Alex feels that this is something that the FW45 performs well with. But even so Alex felt that there was a way to go with the FW45.

Alex commented on this by saying: “They (as in street circuits) suit us a bit more than normal surfaces so I don’t want to be one of the pessimists. But I don’t think our car is a true car right now, we’re still racing the AlphaTauri's.”

A lot of discussion has been around the view that the FW45 is very good on the straights but Alex had to disagree with this saying that given that they have added more downforce onto the 2023 FW45 they certainly are not as well placed in this regard as was the 2022 car.

Alex added; “We’ve not actually been dominating every speed trap. We were last year but we aren’t this year. Even our Sector 2 in Melbourne we were third or fourth quickest down the straight, we weren’t the quickest, we were just very good in Turn 6 itself.

“So we’ve definitely added downforce, but we haven’t always fixed the problematic corners, these combined corners, they’re our biggest weaknesses.”

Alex commented on how he felt the team was overall as he gets ready for his first run at the Miami circuit with the FW45.

Alex added: “I feel like we’re going into weekends with a good baseline. And because of the regulation change last year, there was a lot of discovery about each circuit.

“Now we’re in a point where it’s like ‘No this works’, we start off and we’re in a good place and it’s just fine-tuning straightaway.”

Overall one has to feel quite optimistic about the prospects of the Williams Racing Team and its FW45 as they work through the issues hopefully seeing a far better car as the season progresses.