Alexander Albon, Williams, Miami International Autodrome, 2022

Strategy, not luck, earned Williams’ points finishes – Albon

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In the round-up: Alex Albon says Williams’ opportunities to score points are down to the team’s strategy and not to luck.

In brief

Williams strategy “putting us in situations where we’re looking at points”

After scoring a ninth-place finish in the Miami Grand Prix, thanks partly to Fernando Alonso’s penalty, Albon said his points-scoring finishes

“I don’t even call it luck” that was producing Williams’ good results.

“I think we were, again, optimistic on strategy and stayed out when everyone else pitted,” Albon explained. “We took our chances like we always keep doing and that’s just putting us in situations where we’re looking at points.”

IndyCar introduces electronic flag panels

IndyCar will now use electronic flag panels, as in F1
IndyCar will use new light panels, from the same supplier as Formula 1, Moto GP and WEC, to improve marshal safety and the speed of signal responses.

From the race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course onwards, the panels will be used at IndyCar events after testing with supplier EM Motorsport during the first events of the season proved successful.

“Clearly less overtaking” than expected in Miami – Gasly

Pierre Gasly felt the Miami Grand Prix didn’t deliver as much overtaking as was expected before the race weekend began.

The AlphaTauri was passed by Lewis Hamilton early in the race. “The battle with Lewis was quite short,” said Gasly. “Then after that, Fernando was stuck behind me for quite a few laps.

“So think it was quite, quite tough to pass. Looking at other guys as well, I think there was clearly less overtaking than what I would have thought.”

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Comment of the day

As F1 teams and the championship go back-and-forth on an Andretti entry, F1 Frog suggests that an old model of not diluting the prize money – by not paying out to the 11th team in the constructors world championship – might be a fair way to decide whether teams should get the rewards of competing:

It is way too difficult for a team to get on the grid anyway in F1. If Andretti can provide two cars for the first grand prix of the year they should be allowed on the grid. And if they turn up and are terrible, does that really matter? I don’t see how having a bad team lessens Formula 1 in any way. It was amazing when Jules Bianchi finished ninth for Marussia in Monaco 2014, and apart from Caterham fans I can’t imagine anyone not being overjoyed with that result, so it gives the fans a team who everyone gets behind. It would be even better if there was two bad teams because you get the battle of the minnows, like Marussia and Caterham a decade ago (and even better if HRT can be added to the mix as well). But as it happens I don’t think Andretti would be the new Manor Marussia anyway.

The only reason not to is prize money (building the extra garages would be nothing considering how much money Formula 1 has), and unless I’m very much mistaken Bernie Ecclestone didn’t even give prize money to the 11th team, so that is an option if Liberty feel like being stingy (considering how much money they have they don’t need to do this anyway).

It is ridiculous how difficult it is for a new team to join the grid, and Formula 1 should be doing more to make it easier, not saying ‘it won’t add value to the sport’ because it will.
@f1frog

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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15 comments on “Strategy, not luck, earned Williams’ points finishes – Albon”

  1. I think everyone around F1 is jumping the gun a bit with the whole ‘F1 has finally cracked America’ talk because while F1 is undoubtedly more popular in America than it has been more recently, I think that has to remain consistent over the next few years in order to be able to say F1 has finally cracked the US.

    And i say that because F1 has been here before. It used to be more popular in the US & had a GP consistently through the 50s-80s with Watkins Glen been a very popular venue among drivers and fans. And as F1’s popularity in the US grew they added a 2nd with the street circuit at Long Beach. However they then replaced Watkins Glen to race around an actual car park in Las Vegas for 2 years and also added a 3rd race in the US with another street circuit in Detroit.

    And the US had 3 races because F1 had cracked America.

    The the pretty awful las vegas car park circuit got dropped as did Long Beach which got replaced with a pretty dire street circuit in Dallas which lasted just 1 year and then the US was back to a single GP with a pretty mediocre street race in Detroit which lasted until 1989 where it was replaced by a pretty uninspiring street race in Pheonix for 3 years and 2 layouts and then after 1991 there was none untill Indy in 2000 for 8 years and then COTA in 2012.

    Is history repeating or has F1 actually finally cracked the US for the long haul? That is something i feel we can’t yet say which is why i think F1 rushing to claim it is perhaps a bit early.

    1. ThreePurpleSectors (@)
      11th May 2022, 2:20

      @PeterG, so much negativity. Just say what you really want to say and you won’t need an essay. There is a lot of snobbery in the F1 community and rather than admit that, they are hiding behind critiques of the track, the “Americanization” or whatever that means. Its the first event in a party town, what did you folks expect? The track is green and will most likely change next year. Can yall take a break for a second? We know what the angst is. F1 snobs do not accept the types of people showing up because they don’t see them as worthy or not “real” fans. I’ve got news for you puritans, money talks! Yall should be saying to thank you to Liberty Media for what they’ve done since taking over.

      1. I don’t think the comment was negative, rather a cautious optimism. I think the foundations are certainly set for F1 to succeed long term in the US. We just need time to see it actually happen. Hopefully the greater availability of content that Liberty has provided for the sport will help gather momentum and snag a good number of long term fans rather than interest waning after the novelty of a few events. The more F1 fans in the world, the better!

      2. I can’t see the ‘so much negativity’, in PeterG‘s comment.

      3. @threepurplesectors Wasn’t meant as a negative comment. I was born & raised in America & while I currently live in the UK I want to see F1 thrive back home.

        My comment was more a warning not to proclaim success too early. The signs right now are good but as I say you look back 40 years & things looked just as good back then with F1’s growing popularity in the US hitting a point where they were able to add 2-3 races only for that rise in popularity to not sustain long term.

        1. PeterG Good points but I do think popularity in the US is here to stay for a while given that it is now an American entity in charge and this is now, not then. You cite examples from the past when popularity waned after having peaked but I wonder how much that may have had to do with BE and his management/motivations and/or financial demands on new venues, and likely many other factors that would have seen him failing to keep up any momentum in the US they had gained at times.

      4. @threepurplesectors A bit more reflection before accusing others of negativity might be useful. PeterG’s comment actually has a constructive purpose, unlike yours.

    2. With the huge spike in popularity, Liberty and F1 would be mad not to rush into America and see what sticks. Though I agree that consistency is key from 2023 onwards – hype alone will not make Miami and Las Vegas look good after Year 1 of each race.

      The Drive to Survive effect (I hate calling it that but whatever) will not last forever, and when it fades, F1 would not want to find itself still racing around 2+ uninspiring soul-less tracks when far superior options exist. If Liberty see real long-term growth in America – and the potential is definitely there – they need to transition the new crowd into venues like COTA, or Road America, or Indianapolis again. But if they chase only the corporates and the sponsors, who will inevitably drift away at the next downtrend, then they will squander this chance as quickly as it came around.

  2. Re the COTD one point to add is that it really shouldn’t be about money, because if Andretti entered as a new entry rather than by buying a current team it would have to pay the USD200 million “anti-dilution fee” just to get on the grid, before they even spend a Dollar on car development and setting the team up. The whole point of that payment is to ensure the current teams don’t get negatively impacted by a new team entering.

    Let them in I say…

  3. Indeed strategy.

    Surprising how late IndyCar has gone for electric light panels F1 has used ever since the inaugural Singapore GP.

    Maybe less overtaking than expected, but slightly unsurprising in the end since grip levels were what they were already on practice day.

    Avoiding a weekend clash is easier said than done & besides, Montreal & Le Mans 24h sharing a weekend wouldn’t be bad since the time difference prevents a direct timing clash anyway like with all occasions these two events shared a weekend pre-2012.

    Seb’s reasoning & explanation are good.

    COTD is good, although I think not giving prize money for P11 like before would be unnecessary.

    BTW, an extra garage would be unnecessary as space already exists, like for example 2010-12, but also when Super Aguri was around, & 2013-14 with Caterham still existent + 2016 with Manor.

    1. Yeah I was surprised Indycar didn’t have light panels, if anything I wouldn’t have been surprised if Indycar had them first. They’ve been pretty good really in the last 14 years, other than Lewis and the pit entry at Monza (not necessarily a light problem) the fact we have rarely talk about them means they must be working pretty well without much incident.

  4. Gasly makes a good point, no need to keep this track on the calendar (other than financial reasons for Liberty) as it adds little to attractive racing. I am sure there must be a more attractive circuit somewhere in the United States.

  5. Monaco 1997, great, I wasn’t watching at the time, started in 1999, but later on it’s ofc a race I re-watched, a dominant performance by schumacher on the wet was great to see, also barrichello coming 2nd in that steward and splitting the ferraris had a good performance, was also generally a strong wet weather driver, and I think schumacher had pulled a 28 sec gap or so by 8 laps! And then the mistake which almost took him out of the race a few laps to go when he went long at saint devote, and also the race only had 62 instead of 78 laps due to the 2h duration, it rained all race and they lapped in around 1.54, there was a massive amount of time lost per lap on the wet at monaco, lap times nowadays both in the dry and the wet improved by around 20-25 sec there.

  6. Hearing that there is a lot of tension between the FIA (More specifically Mohammed bin Sulayem) and Liberty.

    The FIA feel that Liberty are overstepping the boundaries by coming up with and pushing through regulations which is supposed to be the primary responsibility of the FIA.

    Jean Todt was happy to go along with it, Especially given his close relationship with Ross & Stefano. However Bin Sulayem doesn’t like the arrangement and wants to bring more power back to the FIA and have Liberty handle only the commercial arrangements.

    If you enjoy the politics of F1 then you could be about to have a real fun time if this isn’t simply a new president seeing how far he can push things.

  7. 97 cars still great looking.

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