Alexander Albon (THA) Williams Racing FW45. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 21, Brazilian Grand Prix, Friday 3rd November 2023. Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Williams driver Alex Albon described Pirelli’s tyres as “just not good” amid high degradation during Formula 1 Sprint in São Paulo.
Several drivers struggled in the hot conditions during the 24-lap Sprint Race on Saturday, with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton saying “that’s the worst deg I’ve ever had” at Interlagos.
Of the 20 starters – all of whom reached the finish – 17 used Softs, including Albon, while the Haas drivers and Albon’s Williams team-mate Logan Sargeant ran Mediums.
“It was okay, a decent race for us, pace was reasonable, the deg is just massive,” said Albon.
“It feels terrible to drive to be honest, everyone must feel terrible as the pace was actually not that bad at the end of the race and it didn’t feel good to me.
“It’s a strange one, when you have that much deg, you feel like everyone should just go on harder tyres but the hard tyres are so bad around here that you have to use the soft tyres as they have the grip to begin with.
“It’ll be interesting tomorrow, strategy will be dependent on deg of course. For me these tyres are just not good. You have to manage them so much.”
On whether it was a specific São Paulo problem Albon said: “In Mexico it happened, in qualifying as well, we’re managing tyres in qualifying, Qatar it happened obviously, Austin it happened, there’s a lot of deg, especially in hotter climates on tough tracks with high deg.
“These old tarmac tracks tend to really eat into the tyres, and then yeah, it feels like when we’re driving around it’s such a managed race.”
Keyword: Albon: Tyres ‘just not good’ amid high degradation