Imola Report: Race Day

An unfortunate result for Alex

Published

19 May 2024

Est Reading Time

2 min

A difficult Sunday in Imola for Alex as our No.23’s car was forced to retire.

It was a clean start for Albono as he held his own in P14 during the opening eight laps around the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari track.

However, after being called in for a set of hard tyres, he reported an issue following the stop and just about crawled around the track for another stop, dropping to P20 and a lap down as a result.

Alex’s luck worsened on lap 25 when he was handed a 10-second stop-go penalty for an unsafe release before being called in for a another set of medium tyres five tours later.

Still, he continued to race two laps behind the pack, relaying information to the garage for his Williams team-mate Logan Sargeant on corner approach.

Albono went on to collect more analysis on his FW46 before he was eventually told to make a return to the garage to retire the car on lap 54.

Speaking on the race, Alex said: “After the issues we faced with the wheel, we used the race as a bit of a test session to experiment with the brakes on long runs, playing around a bit in these conditions. “I didn’t feel the issue coming out of the pits, it was only when I took the pit limiter off and felt the vibration that I could tell something was wrong. “Whilst today is a little painful, it’s not all doom and gloom. We have a plan, and the midfield isn’t scoring a tremendous number of points, so we’re not falling away too much and can still catch up.“