By stretching the life of his starting set of tires to 57 laps, the Williams driver went from last to 10th place, a gain that even his own team could not have predicted before the race.
Others had the chance to do the same, but chose not to.
Now all teams will no doubt be crunching the numbers and working out if an ultra-late stop with the hard is a viable option with the new generation of 18-inch Pirellis, circumstances should make such a gamble worthwhile.
And a gamble it was.
Albon was stuck at the back of the grid due to exclusion from qualifying for failing to provide a fuel sample, so his team put him on a set of new C2 compound hards for the start.
The idea was to run longer than those on mediums, and then take advantage of any fortuitous circumstances, such as safety cars.
Out of position on the grid, Fernando Alonso and Kevin Magnussen took the same gamble with new hards, while Sebastian Vettel, Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll went for used hards.
However, Sainz spun off early and triggered a virtual safety car that allowed stroll to pit, complete a mandatory one lap with mediums, and then pit again for the hards – it was a clever move that potentially opened up the chance to run with no further stops. His teammate Vettel, meanwhile, crashed out.
The three drivers who started on new hards stayed out and progressed up the order as others pitted on mediums.
“We looked at out race predictions and we looked a bit sad,” said Albon. “It was a race where we took risks, because we felt like no matter what we did we were going to finish 19th or 20th.
“We went into the race starting our race, taking a bit of time to build the tires up into a nice window, and when you start last you can afford to do that.”
Alonso, Magnussen and Albon were running sixth, ninth and 10th and hoping that a safety car might gift them a stop when Max Verstappen stopped on track and triggered a VSC.
Alex Albon, Williams FW44
Photo by: Williams
The Alpine and Haas both dashed into the pits, but against expectations, the Williams didn’t.
Albon could still get good pace out of his original set, and the team opted for track position while hoping for another safety car gift later on. So he kept going – and going.
“I was surprised we were never boxing under the VSC or the safety cars,” said Albon. “I thought, ‘Okay, well they know something I don’t.
“And I thought one of the Haas’s boxed in front of me [Magnussen]and that was my point where I thought, ‘Okay, it’s going to be a tricky race now,’ because that DRS [from the Haas] was saving me from being overtaken from the pack behind.
“But once we got clear air, we just went. We were on much older tires than the guys around us, and we were keeping pace more or less with the McLarens. At the every end pulling away from the Alpines.
“It just got better and better, and by the end it felt like qualifying laps for the last 25 laps of the race.”
The extra safety car never came, and it became apparent that Williams had a difficult decision to make. Albon was running a superb seventh, and pitting would obviously drop him out of the points.
Or would it? As the final laps counted down, the team could see a window where he might just be able to pit and still just scrape into the top 10, and that meant waiting for a stop on the penultimate lap.
It worked better than anyone could have hoped. Albon dived into the pits with just a lap left, and as he emerged on a set of softs – the only set to be used by any driver in the whole race – he was safely in front of Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou in 10th place.
It was a canny piece of strategy and a bold decision from a team that has been encouraged by boss Jost Capito to take gambles and roll the dice when there is little to lose.
“Obviously it’s completely unexpected,” said Albon. “But it really highlights all the work that’s been done at the factory and here at the track. That determination and motivation, that’s where it gets you. It’s been an amazing day, and I’m glad I could get this result for the team .
“What’s interesting is that C2 tires really suits our car. We almost need to understand why, because it’s a bit unexpected, clearly, this result. Maybe we need to qualify, race, do everything on that tyre. Bring in 10 sets for the Whole thing!”
Alex Albon, Williams FW44
Photo by: Williams
Team boss Capito confirmed that the strategy hadn’t been planned.
“It came through the race,” he told Motorsport.com. I think when you are finally you are seventh, you want to enjoy it as long as possible!
“We don’t have the experience with the tires, and that’s a problem. And we saved the two primes for each car, so we didn’t drive the primes at all, all weekend. So we had no real idea. We knew from the past that the primes are really good for us. So we hoped that would come out here as well.
“And before the race, we said we just have to learn the tyres. So if we are 18th and 20th on the grid, it’s no way to push too hard, but learn the tyres, and then see what happens when we moved up the field. So then we developed it. It was great cooperation of the pit wall.”
It was indeed a highly unusual strategy, at least in the Pirelli era. However Red Bull pulled off a similar trick at Monza in 2010, pitting Sebastian Vettel for new Bridgestones on the last lap and earning fourth place, so it has worked before.
With Pirelli tires in play we’ve seen scenarios such as Sochi in 2014, when Nico Rosberg locked up on the first lap and pitted to get rid of his flat-spotted tyres, and was then able to run the rest of the race on hards .
The Albon strategy even came as a surprise to Pirelli.
“I understood they were protecting the position,” said Mario Isola. “They didn’t want to change before, because they were worried about traffic. I will say the first time probably in the last 12 years that I see a strategy like this, with one car running for all the race.
“In the past Rosberg changed on the first lap, and then he was running all the rest. In that case it’s a bit different, because the start of the race to 57 laps.
“It was strange to see this approach.”
Alex Albon, Williams FW44, Lance Stroll, Aston Martin AMR22
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Although the last lap stop just worked perfectly in terms of getting that priceless point, Isola noted that Williams had a chance to do even better.
“I’m sure they made their calculation, but stopping maybe a couple of laps before they could have tried to push also for the fastest lap – because with the soft tire it’s possible!”
