Alex Albon says Williams pre-season issues stem from ambition to be leading team

Alex Albon admits Williams are behind where they want to be ahead of the new Formula One campaign but says their pre-season issues stem from an ambition to become a leading team.

The Grove-based team enjoyed their best season for nine years by finishing fifth in the constructors’ championship and hopes were high heading into the new campaign amid the biggest regulation changes in the sport’s history.

That expectation was tempered somewhat when Williams were forced to miss last month’s Barcelona ‘shakedown’ as the car was not ready, meaning they have been forced to play catch-up in subsequent pre-season testing in Bahrain, which continues this week.

Albon accepts that the issue has put them on the back foot but believes the problems arose from a desire to strive to challenge at the top of the sport.

“We’re not here to finish P5 in the constructors’ championship, we’re here to be a top team,” Albon told the Press Association.

“You’re only really going to make those jumps if you’re ambitious. Yes, it’s not the start of the year that we want but I’d rather us try and have these bottlenecks and these issues than be safe.

“We challenged the system, we tried to do the best job we could. We were ambitious in our targets and we just fell short to make Barcelona.

“It has exposed some areas that we clearly have realised we need to improve on.”

Albon’s team-mate Carlos Sainz claimed two podiums in the second half of last season to show the progress of the team under James Vowles.

The almost total reset of the sport’s rules offered hope that the established order could be challenged but Albon is not convinced that his team, or any other, will be able to break into the top four yet.

Asked whether a first career race win was possible this season, Albon said: “I don’t believe so, no. I think realistically what this whole reset has done is reset the system and the top four teams have pulled away from everyone else.

“There is a big gap. I think realistically our battle is in the midfield.

“That’s our fight for now but I would say we have a huge ceiling and we’re quite far away from that at the moment.

“I think, from our estimations, we are maybe further back from where we want to be.”

The final race of last season was on December 7 and the first pre-season running in Barcelona – which Williams missed – began on January 26, marking a swift turnaround for drivers and teams.

Albon admits he felt “burnt out” by the end of last season and is keen to avoid that happening again.

“With such a short turnaround, it was prioritising my health and my recovery, making sure I had a good off-season,” he added.

“You’ll be amazed how many meetings and conversations I have had behind the scenes to optimise (my schedule). In the end, we have partners and we have F1 mandatory things that we have to do. Even the few minutes you can save over a race weekend is everything.”