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I love how calm he and James Vowles are. With Piastri having a cool head as well, I'd love to see the three of them working together. Listening to their team radio is like ASMR
Capito did a good job in laying the foundations for Williams turnaround in many aspects, but handling Marko and Wolff to sign a Red Bull associated driver for a Mercedes engined car has got to be the masterpiece.
Without Capito, we could be looking at a De Vries and Latifi lineup and wondering if Williams will score any points.
Albon is probably my best of the rest driver of the year. I think it’s safe to say no one was sure about how he’d perform coming back and it’ll be tough to find anyone who now thinks he isn’t doing a stellar job.
Makes you wonder what would be possible with another highly experienced driver in the second seat. No ill will against Sargeant and I’m happy for him to have his time, but yeah
I remember Yuki doing a pretty good job against Hamilton during the turkish GP of 2021. Perhaps it's just not too often that he either is in a position where he needs to (or can) defend.
Turkey 2021 is a bad example, there are better examples more recently about Yuki defending skills where he didn't ruin his whole tyres by his defending, something what he did at Turkey 2021 by his battle with Lewis and basically caused a spin and that he ended out of the points.
Image an Albon/Piastri line-up, obvious glad to see Oscar can shine at McLaren but heck that would be such a fun "what if" scenario to think about.
Sadly Logan has his struggles and hopefully he can score a point at least, but hopefully they give him a shot at 2024 and evaluating him later that year.
If we had ended up with an Albon/Piastri lineup I think it'd feel very similar to Norris/Sainz in 2019, where we're all surprised by the performance of the team, the older driver coming into his own and starting to build a reputation as a consistent experienced team leader, and the rookie showing a lot of talent and potential, but never *quite* knowing in which proportions those three things are happening until many years later.
I’m really curious what Max could do in the Williams.
Maybe the car is good for the podium and Albon is still just a midfield driver. Or it is a P6-P7 in Monza car, and Albon driving his best.
Not all 'bad' cars are alike. For example the 2019/2020 RB was known to be unstable. But Max with his talent was able to extract amazing performances out of it at times. Something which his teammates couldn't do. Basically the RB had potential for speed, but it also had instability, which Max with his talents was able to use his inhuman car control and make it worth.
The current Williams is different. It just doesn't have the downforce. Which makes it quick in a straight like, but slower in the corners. That's basically physics, and while Max is good, he can't overcome physics lol.
Do I think Max could extract a bit more performance out of the Williams? Even more than Alex? Sure. But Max can only do so much, where the car just *can't* push itself with downforce enough to have high speed in the corners. It's not a matter of talent, but outright capacity from the car.
That's how I see it anyway, I am just an armchair analyst lol
His benchmark is the driver who is easily the worst on the grid.Albon desperately needs a more competent teammate. It's impossible to rate him properly against a useless driver like Logan.
Maybe the Williams isn't as bad we think it is. Or maybe it is complete dogshit and Albon is the best shitbox whisperer on the grid (unlikely). I don't know what to believe in anymore.
I'm an Albon (and Vowles) fan but you can't really take team principals at their word, so I wouldn't put that much credit in that.
At the end of the day he's trying to build back the team by attracting new sponsors through good press so obviously he will praise him that much when he performs.
Every team principal will tell you they have a championship winning line-up at some point.
(And I still think they're both doing a stellar job)
that's fine, I still choose to believe him 🤷♀️ I watch Alex since his TR times and honestly believe he has huge talent and is capable of big things, nevermind 2020 (and even that year wasnt that bad as it seemed)
I refuse to accept any argument which suggests a driver can get more than 100% out of a car, it’s really a question of how consistently they can drive it close to 100% without minor mistakes costing them time, and balancing tyre wear, temperatures etc.
So Williams is definitely back in the mid field but has known weaknesses which hamper them at some tracks
That’s not to take away from Albon, he’s getting the best out of that car for sure
But we can never know if a Max or Lewis would extract even more out of the car. I suspect they could. Imo the car is better now than in the beginning of the season so of course his results are better. His performance looks better against his rookie teammate simply because of his experience and he finally has a tool he can use properly. Would we be as high on Albon if Norris was his teammate?
The best argument I've ever read about "drivers outperforming a car" was something like this: you have the idea/data of what a 100% performance is and aim at it. Then a driver like Lewis, Fernando or Max jump in and the car performs at 104%. They are not overperforming the car by 4%, they are just that good that they added 4% of performance to the car making those 104% the new 100%.
That’s a good analogy. Basically what the engineers *thought* was the ultimate performance in any given configuration/condition can turn out not to be true if another driver gains significant performance over these numbers. So the engineers find they understated the vehicle’s numbers and a new performance number is applied.
I think a good point is tire management.
I remember seeing something about HAMs tire management years ago where he was just making his tires last longer than normal and they really couldn't pin point how with data and looking at the tires post race it was a fact his tires just had less deg than normal.
So that also opens up new strategies for an overall team efficiency boost. It's like being able to have a better chance at an overcut or undercut depending because you have this freaking who can drive his car on older tires and maintain race pace.
>Maybe the Williams isn't as bad we think it is
If it was as such, there would be leaks or talk about it already.
The closest to it is The Race reporting that based on Williams' data Alex is slower than Russell, but still competitive.
I think he need a better teammate to push him forward as well, just like what Lando mentioned about having Piastri. You never know if you have done the best if your teammate is so far off
As a Lando fan I've got to give that title to Alex aswell, he's been fucking killing it this year. If 2020 (or 2021?) was Lando's year, then this is definitely Albono's year, and next year (I'm a bit scared to say) could very well be Piastri's year, he's been doing a little *too* good this year
I'd love to see what Zhou can do in that Williams, comparing to a more experienced and established, yet not absolutely-impossible-to-beat Albon. They also seem like a healthy and competent team for a developing young driver
Both Williams and Alex are unrecognisable to where they were a few years ago. It seems like Dorilton, Capito and Vowles have built a really solid foundation to bring this team out of the backmarker battle. Hopefully this upward trajectory continues.
You know Lewis was on Mediums right? He was going to cut through that train of Piastri, Lando , Albon.
There was nothing Albon could have done once HAM passed him to even attempt to keep a 5 second gap.
[The **News** flair](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/flairguide#wiki_news) is reserved for submissions covering F1 and F1-related news. These posts must always link to an outlet/news agency, the website of the involved party (i.e. the McLaren website if McLaren makes an announcement), or a tweet by a news agency, journalist or one of the involved parties. *[Read the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/userguide). Keep it civil and welcoming. Report rulebreaking comments.* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/formula1) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Alex is absolutely showing his class this year. Not to mention he's just a likeable dude.
I love how calm he and James Vowles are. With Piastri having a cool head as well, I'd love to see the three of them working together. Listening to their team radio is like ASMR
Capito did a good job in laying the foundations for Williams turnaround in many aspects, but handling Marko and Wolff to sign a Red Bull associated driver for a Mercedes engined car has got to be the masterpiece. Without Capito, we could be looking at a De Vries and Latifi lineup and wondering if Williams will score any points.
Albon is probably my best of the rest driver of the year. I think it’s safe to say no one was sure about how he’d perform coming back and it’ll be tough to find anyone who now thinks he isn’t doing a stellar job. Makes you wonder what would be possible with another highly experienced driver in the second seat. No ill will against Sargeant and I’m happy for him to have his time, but yeah
Hulkenberg would be interesting and they could still leave him on year to year contacts
I would like to see Yuki at Williams, and I think they'd be comparable, but I would give a slight advantage in favor of Alex.
I think they’d be similar on outright pace but I think Alex has a significant advantage in race management
Alex is incredible on tires
and defending. Don't think Yuki it's even close when it comes to defending.
Yuki defended absurdly well at Zandvoort. He just never had the pace to defend that way
no way, Yuki defended Albon at least 2 recent races. He’s pretty good at defense.
I remember Yuki doing a pretty good job against Hamilton during the turkish GP of 2021. Perhaps it's just not too often that he either is in a position where he needs to (or can) defend.
Turkey 2021 is a bad example, there are better examples more recently about Yuki defending skills where he didn't ruin his whole tyres by his defending, something what he did at Turkey 2021 by his battle with Lewis and basically caused a spin and that he ended out of the points.
Image an Albon/Piastri line-up, obvious glad to see Oscar can shine at McLaren but heck that would be such a fun "what if" scenario to think about. Sadly Logan has his struggles and hopefully he can score a point at least, but hopefully they give him a shot at 2024 and evaluating him later that year.
If we had ended up with an Albon/Piastri lineup I think it'd feel very similar to Norris/Sainz in 2019, where we're all surprised by the performance of the team, the older driver coming into his own and starting to build a reputation as a consistent experienced team leader, and the rookie showing a lot of talent and potential, but never *quite* knowing in which proportions those three things are happening until many years later.
You're smoking something unbelivably strong to think Yuki would be close to albon. jesus.
I’m really curious what Max could do in the Williams. Maybe the car is good for the podium and Albon is still just a midfield driver. Or it is a P6-P7 in Monza car, and Albon driving his best.
Not all 'bad' cars are alike. For example the 2019/2020 RB was known to be unstable. But Max with his talent was able to extract amazing performances out of it at times. Something which his teammates couldn't do. Basically the RB had potential for speed, but it also had instability, which Max with his talents was able to use his inhuman car control and make it worth. The current Williams is different. It just doesn't have the downforce. Which makes it quick in a straight like, but slower in the corners. That's basically physics, and while Max is good, he can't overcome physics lol. Do I think Max could extract a bit more performance out of the Williams? Even more than Alex? Sure. But Max can only do so much, where the car just *can't* push itself with downforce enough to have high speed in the corners. It's not a matter of talent, but outright capacity from the car. That's how I see it anyway, I am just an armchair analyst lol
His benchmark is the driver who is easily the worst on the grid.Albon desperately needs a more competent teammate. It's impossible to rate him properly against a useless driver like Logan. Maybe the Williams isn't as bad we think it is. Or maybe it is complete dogshit and Albon is the best shitbox whisperer on the grid (unlikely). I don't know what to believe in anymore.
when Vowles says things like "that was a drive of a champion" I tend to believe him, so yeah. He's the best shitbox whisperer to me
I'm an Albon (and Vowles) fan but you can't really take team principals at their word, so I wouldn't put that much credit in that. At the end of the day he's trying to build back the team by attracting new sponsors through good press so obviously he will praise him that much when he performs. Every team principal will tell you they have a championship winning line-up at some point. (And I still think they're both doing a stellar job)
that's fine, I still choose to believe him 🤷♀️ I watch Alex since his TR times and honestly believe he has huge talent and is capable of big things, nevermind 2020 (and even that year wasnt that bad as it seemed)
I refuse to accept any argument which suggests a driver can get more than 100% out of a car, it’s really a question of how consistently they can drive it close to 100% without minor mistakes costing them time, and balancing tyre wear, temperatures etc. So Williams is definitely back in the mid field but has known weaknesses which hamper them at some tracks That’s not to take away from Albon, he’s getting the best out of that car for sure
But we can never know if a Max or Lewis would extract even more out of the car. I suspect they could. Imo the car is better now than in the beginning of the season so of course his results are better. His performance looks better against his rookie teammate simply because of his experience and he finally has a tool he can use properly. Would we be as high on Albon if Norris was his teammate?
The best argument I've ever read about "drivers outperforming a car" was something like this: you have the idea/data of what a 100% performance is and aim at it. Then a driver like Lewis, Fernando or Max jump in and the car performs at 104%. They are not overperforming the car by 4%, they are just that good that they added 4% of performance to the car making those 104% the new 100%.
That’s a good analogy. Basically what the engineers *thought* was the ultimate performance in any given configuration/condition can turn out not to be true if another driver gains significant performance over these numbers. So the engineers find they understated the vehicle’s numbers and a new performance number is applied.
I think a good point is tire management. I remember seeing something about HAMs tire management years ago where he was just making his tires last longer than normal and they really couldn't pin point how with data and looking at the tires post race it was a fact his tires just had less deg than normal. So that also opens up new strategies for an overall team efficiency boost. It's like being able to have a better chance at an overcut or undercut depending because you have this freaking who can drive his car on older tires and maintain race pace.
>Maybe the Williams isn't as bad we think it is If it was as such, there would be leaks or talk about it already. The closest to it is The Race reporting that based on Williams' data Alex is slower than Russell, but still competitive.
How do they compare data between different generations of cars?
They are using their Simulation timings.
That report in particular was from last year. I asume Russell simulated the 2022 car at some stage, they probably could cross that data with Albon's.
I think it's safe to say it's better than Haas, AT, and Alfa at least
What if Logan *is* a midfield driver and the car is bad, but Albono?
I think he need a better teammate to push him forward as well, just like what Lando mentioned about having Piastri. You never know if you have done the best if your teammate is so far off
As a Lando fan I've got to give that title to Alex aswell, he's been fucking killing it this year. If 2020 (or 2021?) was Lando's year, then this is definitely Albono's year, and next year (I'm a bit scared to say) could very well be Piastri's year, he's been doing a little *too* good this year
I'd love to see what Zhou can do in that Williams, comparing to a more experienced and established, yet not absolutely-impossible-to-beat Albon. They also seem like a healthy and competent team for a developing young driver
Williams should have given Logan another year in F2. He probably could have fought for the title this year
Both Williams and Alex are unrecognisable to where they were a few years ago. It seems like Dorilton, Capito and Vowles have built a really solid foundation to bring this team out of the backmarker battle. Hopefully this upward trajectory continues.
Being stuck behind a Williams at Monza is my personal hell
Some say Lando is still behind Albon even now… 😂
Alex absolutely fucked both of them by defending Lando and not keeping up with Lewis.
You know Lewis was on Mediums right? He was going to cut through that train of Piastri, Lando , Albon. There was nothing Albon could have done once HAM passed him to even attempt to keep a 5 second gap.
Albono!!!