Season Debrief: Williams climb back to midfield

Williams completed the 2023 campaign with their highest finish in 6 seasons. From finishing last in 2022, Williams completed 2023 with a jump to seventh, holding off AlphaTauri by 3 points. The success of the Grove based team being largely driven by the consistency of Albon.

 

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Williams began the 2023 season with a fresh start, a new car, team principal and driver line-up. James Vowels took a step up in his career, making a move from Mercedes strategy to becoming team principal, replacing Jost Capito. Albon continued to lead the team in 2023, with Logan Sargeant being promoted up to F1 from F2, taking the seat of Nicholas Latifi.

 

Coming away from the season opener in Bahrain, Williams had everyone’s attention. Albon added another points finish to his tally, putting the FW45 up into P10,  while his teammate completed his first race as a rookie in P12 ahead of the other two rookies for 2023. With great success in Bahrain, Williams had high expectations and hopes for their 2023 campaign.

 

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The FW45 excelled at high-speed tracks, such as Montreal and Monza, where Albon put another cracking performance to finish in P7. With the updated car and long straights in Montreal, Albon held off a pack of cars in the closing stages of the race to come home in P7. Albon putting in a similar performance at Monza, where he qualified in P6, and fighting the upgraded McLaren of Lando Norris to defend his position, completing the race in P7 ahead of the McLaren.

 

While Albon seemed to be at peace with the car, Sargeant seemed to be losing comfort in the car over the course of the season, facing a series of collisions between rivals and barriers from Belgium to Japan. Sergeants best finish coming at the Circuit of the Americas, after he benefited from the disqualification of Hamilton and Leclerc post-race, promoting the rookie to P10, scoring his first points in the series.

 

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Albon outperformed his teammate in every race, causing many fans to speculate if Sargeant would keep his seat going into 2024 with no known updates on the Americans future in the sport going into the season finale in Abu Dhabi. Williams finally announcing a few weeks after the season end, that they would extend the 23-year-olds contract up until the end of 2024.

 

James Vowels ended the season speaking to Chris Meland at Motorsport, expressing their focus going forward, stating “our focus isn’t about whether we are eighth, seventh or ninth; it’s making proper significant steps up the field back towards the front.”