Alex Albon calls for Williams review after frustrating tyre call in British GP qualifying

Alex Albon has called for an “internal discussion” at Williams after a strategic error compromised his chances of reaching Q3 for the British Grand Prix.

Albon believes Williams wasted a set of fresh soft tyres by sending him just after Franco Colapinto crashed at the Vale corner in Q1, despite clear signs that the session was about to be red-flagged.

This had consequences on Williams’ run plan for the rest of qualifying, with Albon getting only a single run on new tyres in Q2 after setting an initial banker on old runner.

The Briton explained that switching from an old to a new set of tyres completely changed the behaviour of the car in the middle of the session, and left him 14th in qualifying ahead of his home race on Sunday.

“We need to discuss it internally because we didn’t do the right things at the right time,” the Anglo-Thai driver told F1's official website.

“We wasted a set of tyres when Franco crashed and we went out even though it was quite clear it was going to be a red flag. So we ended up damaging a set of tyres.

“And when the wind is so sensitive like it is today you just need consistency with the car. There is quite a big difference between a new set and a used set around here. There is normally a half a second drop off.

“So we ended up wasting a set of tyres, putting an old set of Q2 run one and a new one for Q2 run two. As you expected it was a different car. A little bit unnecessary what we did, actually.”

Albon also pointed to other areas where Williams’ decision-making could have been sharper, including the timing of his qualifying runs.

“We could have optimised the strategy a lot better,” he explained. We went out very early in Q1 run one, run two [and] run three. Then we went out early in Q2 run one and run two.”

Albon’s teammate Carlos Sainz set the 11th quickest time in the middle part of qualifying, missing out on a berth in Q3 by just 0.035s to Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.

Sainz will start the race from ninth on the grid while Albon will line up 13th on the grid after penalties for Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman.

Albon, who has been Williams’ top scorer this year, believes he had the car to qualify inside the top 10 at Silverstone.

Asked if he can fight back into the points on Sunday, he said: “Yeah, we can. We should not be here. We should be in Q3 quite comfortably.

“We have a quick car. Hopefully we will make the most of it.”