REPORT: Alex hits 121 laps to conclude testing

Alex Albon took the reigns of the FW46 for a full day of piloting at the Sakhir circuit and recorded the most laps of any single driver, with 121 to his name.

Pre-Season Testing’s final day had another disruption as drain cover issues again proved problematic, but Albono could still reach P6 on the timesheets.

The red flags waved just 30 minutes into the session before resuming at 11:45 for seven uninterrupted hours of activity for teams and drivers.

The No23 was one of the half-dozen drivers to set a time in the 1:30s with a 1:30.984, a lap just ​​0.662s away from the day’s fastest.

“We had a good day to complete the pre-season test,” summarises Williams Racing’s Head of Vehicle Performance, Dave Robson.

“We did another 120 laps and this time without any car issues. Alex was able to build on the work done by Logan yesterday and continued to evolve the FW46.

“Across a range of fuel loads, the car was behaving well, and Alex was able to complete a decent race simulation using two of the tyre compounds that will be available next week.

“Inevitably at this time of year, there is a lot of scope to push the FW46 harder and to develop it quickly.

“We have a few days to analyse the data from this week and decide how we build the cars for FP1 and how we look to introduce the first round of car updates.

“There is a lot to do, but we have made a solid start and have a good foundation to build on.”

Alex’s second taste of the FW46 had him feeling positive, saying, “Firstly, we’ve got a decent car to go racing with.

“I do think we struggled a little bit with the car across day one and two with just how different it is, struggling to rebalance it, but we made some big headway in making the car more driveable.

“With the changing car characteristics, we shifted some of our historical problems to different areas.

“Still, we’ve been able to fix some of these, but, unfortunately, in the process, we’ve picked up a few things we didn’t like.

“Despite this, we did a bit of a radical set-up today and this worked out for the better.”

Our Thai racer wasn’t only concentrating on our performance, however, and believes the 2024 season is evenly matched in the midfield:

“Looking at the rest of the grid, the midfield has closed up a lot with everyone making a big jump from last year, so it’s all quite equal throughout the field.

“This year is going to be all about the fine details and potential tracks that better suit others, so there are going to be lots of interesting battles.”