"I don't know why you don't listen to me": Alex Albon furious at Williams for his race strategy

Alex Albon has been the lead driver at Williams and has scored the majority of the points for the Grove-based squad this year. Despite qualifying 10th for the Canadian Grand Prix, the Thai-British driver's chances of scoring points reduced significantly as the British team gambled on an unorthodox strategy, which seemed to infuriate the 29-year-old.

Carlos Sainz joined Williams over the winter break, and everyone was expecting the Spaniard to take over the star driver role. Moreover, the 30-year-old had posted the fastest lap time during the pre-season testing, increasing the expectations of the paddock from him.

Meanwhile, this posed doubts on Albon's status within the team, but this was soon quashed as he finished the season opener in P5, bringing a huge haul of points. This trend continued into the following few race weekends as he has scored 42 points in the season so far.

At the Canadian Grand Prix, the Williams duo appeared to be a possible threat to securing the upper midfield echelons. However, after Sainz was held up by Isack Hadjar during Q1, this left Albon to don the flag of Williams in Q3.

He then qualified 10th on the grid and appeared to be on track to score some points. Perhaps, this judgement was made too early as he was left out on the track to extend his medium tire stint, which annoyed him as he conveyed his frustration over the radio:

"I don't really know why you don't listen to me. It really annoys me."

Williams' decision to put Albon on a one-stop strategy could be a mistake by the Grove-based squad, as team principal James Vowles later admitted. He said over the Sky Sports broadcast:

"Yeah, we pushed it very late to try and make this one stop work. We are on a one [stopper], there's a few cars in front we don't think they can hang it to the end, so it's just a question of whether that hard will hang in there or not."

Alex Albon later had to retire from the race due to a power unit issue.

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Alex Albon knows Williams does not have the pace to be a big midfield team

Alex Albon during the qualifying for the F1 Grand Prix of Canada - Source: Getty

Though Alex Albon has scored a plethora of points so far, Williams was slated to lose the edge over its rivals owing to its decision not to develop the 2025 challenger. This is seemingly coming to bite the team back as the Thai-British driver has had a few subpar race weekends as of late.

Reflecting on the Williams FW47's pace, Albon said (via Formula 1):

"I don’t think we are quite there yet, and if we want to score big points we are going to have to make the car quicker."

On the other hand, halfway through the race, pole-sitter George Russell led the Canadian Grand Prix with Max Verstappen and the McLaren duo in the mix for the race victory.