Alexander Albon was not impressed with Formula 1’s experiment with forcing drivers to make two tyre changes in Monaco.
The Williams driver lost a significant amount of time early in the race when he was stuck behind Liam Lawson. The Racing Bulls driver deliberately lapped slowly in order to help his team mate Isack Hadjar ahead pull away.
The Williams drivers later pulled off similar tactics, Albon dropping back to delay other drivers to help Carlos Sainz Jnr move ahead and secure a double points finish for the team.
However Albon was unhappy about the tactics the team had to resort to due to the new rules.
“I didn’t like it,” he told the official F1 channel. “I don’t think Carlos liked it. It’s not really how we want to go racing.
I don’t like going racing like that. In the end it’s a tactical game and we had to make it work. The [Racing Bulls] started it and we knew if they start it, we’ve got to match it and it just makes this messy race.”
He spent much of the race lapping well below his car’s potential. “I could have put a pillow in the car and a coffee and just chilled out for a little bit,” he said. “But in a weird way it’s even actually quite hard to keep your focus when you’re driving around that slowly.
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“It’s not pretty, but I’m glad we got points for the team.”
Albon said his performance in qualifying yesterday, when he lapped almost half a second slower in Q3 than he did in Q2, left them at a disadvantage in the race.
“I think realistically we lost the race on Saturday and we just missed out on tyres,” he said. “You pay the price here as you saw today, you start where you finish and that was it.
“So it’s frustrating not to come away with more points but at the same time we’re just chipping away at it. I think this weekend has been a bit disappointing. It feels like we didn’t maximise what we could have achieved this weekend and instead I’ve got a few angry drivers behind me.”
On his radio after taking the chequered flag Albon called it: “A very ugly race.”
“I apologise for everyone watching that one,” he added.
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