Alex Albon declared his Williams was “the best the car has felt all year” during Practice at the French Grand Prix.
The Red Bull-backed driver finished in the top 10 in Practice 1 before slipping back to 16th by the end of the second session at Paul Ricard.
However, despite the position on the timesheet, Albon was pleased with his day’s work.
“It was a really good day today,” he said via Formula1.com.
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“We had out the box actually in FP1, it felt good to drive – actually, the best the car has felt all year so far – so I’m really happy.
“Obviously we’re still looking more towards the bottom half of the field, but I think there’s good potential in the car and I’m happy.
“I think this track seems to suit us, for whatever reason. We’ll see tomorrow.”
This is now the third weekend that Albon has had a radically upgraded Williams package which has taken the car in a similar direction to Red Bull in terms of philosophy.
A solid lap has AA23 in P7 ?#WeAreWilliams #FrenchGP pic.twitter.com/8SckQ2kK80
— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) July 22, 2022
As for teammate Nicholas Latifi, however, he only got the new parts for the first time on Friday as he finished slowest overall in both sessions.
Even so, the London-born Thai driver was enthused by how the Williams handled the technical challenges around Paul Ricard.
“So there are things which we’re doing which are helping optimise the car, and it’s feeling well put together,” Albon explained.
“I think it’s a track that isn’t easy. It’s got long corners, low-speed corners, high-speed corners, you need a car that’s quite adaptable. The wind here is also always pretty open, so you get these side gusts which create imbalances in the car.
“It seems like it’s a track basically that puts the car to the test and today it’s [been] performing well.”
