General
Williams need to "go back to the drawing board" in Japan
Alex Albon surprised some with his results across the practice sessions, as P8 in FP1 was later topped when his Williams ended the second session of the weekend in seventh. Although he is hinting that those results are not a sign of the true pace of his car.
Williams identifies race pace issues.
"The low fuel pace feels good. We kind of expected that" opens the Thai Driver, as he tries to explain how depsite finishing well in practice, he's not too optimistic about the weekend yet. "it's the long run pace that we're struggling with, so, we need to figure that out. I think the deg is high, this tracks hemp and humidity, a little bit like Singapore. We are struggling in the race front, so let's go back to the drawing board a bit."
Sector one proving to be an issue so far
Albon is honest with the issues that are plaguing Williams so far this weekend, identifying the straights as a positive, but sector one as a cause for concern "We're good down the straights. It’s giving up a little bit in sector one and sliding around a little bit more, which is the reason why the tyres are struggling a bit more. It's why in the short runs we kind of get away with it". Although he sees the possibility of it improving this weekend, he's still not confident about it "When the track grips up, tyre life goes on, less sliding on the circuit, so everything goes in the right way but we need it to grip up quite considerably."