“We see it as useful input rather than nagging” - Alex Albon constantly complaining on the radio does not bother Williams boss

James Vowles, the Williams' team boss, praised Alex Albon for being open about shortcomings in race strategy. Such responses from the drivers are not readily digested by the engineering team, who often argue for having access to much more data to figure out the best possible strategy.

James Vowles, though, has a different take as he said:

"We even encourage him (Alex Albon) to express himself clearly, because nobody knows better than [him] what is going on in the racing car.”

Alex Albon was instructed to speed up by the Williams command post during the 2023 Miami Grand Prix. The Thai Briton wasn’t pleased with this and made his frustration known on the team radio.

Albon complained that he would rather spare his tires than follow the command which he felt was not a good practice at the stage of the race they were in.

Vowles admits that Alex Albon's tyre-changing strategy would've worked in favor of the team

Alex Albon in F1 Grand Prix of Miami

In retrospect, Vowles admits that Alex Albon would've been faster had the tyres been changed. Realizing where he went wrong, the team principal said:

"If he had spared the tires even more, we would not have been able to move forward. We tried to make the first part of the race as long as possible, but it didn't do much."

During the race, the team assumed they had a chance against Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas if they speed up. And they believed that they weren't in a good position as there were faster cars approaching from behind.

Williams hadn't strategized their moves on Miami's street circuit. Vowles agreed that in order to compete with the highly competitive midfield, they would've had to judge how the car fit in the track and what form the driver and the car showed on the day of the race.

According to Alex Albon, the 2023 Miami Grand Prix was tricky as they lacked pace. They misjudged their position in the race as their relatively good performance in the previous races made them the ninth-quickest car.

Being optimistic about what happened, he also said that he had quite a few takeaways. Albon pointed out that races like Miami expose their pitfalls that they need to work on for improving their pace.

They weren't in a position to challenge the top 10. In a rare race with no retirements, no rains, and no red and yellow flags or safety cars, Williams still failed to perform.

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