Sawt Falasteen - Williams 'on the back foot' after missing Barcelona: Albon

With all teams scrambling to conform to the sweeping overhaul of engine and chassis regulations, Williams were behind the pace and so skipped the shakedown, preferring to do virtual track testing with Albon and his teammate Carlos Sainz.

Williams did take part in last week's testing in Bahrain and are back on track again this week but the Thai-British driver is concerned that they may have lost some serious ground to Mercedes, Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari.

"Obviously it was frustrating to miss out in Barcelona," Albon, 29, told AFP on Wednesday.

"Clearly we missed an opportunity to learn. We are a little bit on the back foot compared to our rivals up and down the grid.

"And we've realised just there's so much learning to do in these days. Every day has become so valuable.

"Even just looking at ourselves, how much we've improved from the first day of testing last week to where we are now is huge."

Team principal James Vowles has already said he is determined Williams should do at least as well as their fifth place in the constructors' standings in 2025, their joint-best finish in 10 years.

"I share the same vision as James," said Albon.

"I feel that it would always be nice to be even more, even closer to the top teams and pulling away from the midfield fight.

"Realistically, I think it's going to be a big challenge for us to be able to be there.

"We are as a team very ambitious. Unfortunately we found some bottlenecks and so we are on the back foot.

"We're not where we want to be for now. That's not to say we can't get back to the top five in the constructors and have a good season, but we have some catching up to do."

- 'Special' Thailand -

The London-born driver, who announced his engagement to Chinese LPGA golfer Lily He last month, is just the second driver in 75 years of Formula One to race under the Thai flag.

"I feel very much Thai in who I am," Albon said.

"I am Buddhist and I feel very close to Thai people, Thai culture. I resonate much closer to Thailand than I do anywhere else. So it means a lot.

"What meant a lot to me was my first podium in Formula 1 to see the Thai flag behind me. It was very special."

That passion for his mother's country - his father is the British racing driver Nigel Albon - has also stoked a desire to create a Grand Prix in Thailand.

"One of my biggest goals is to try to make this happen," he said.

"I think that would be amazing for the country. We're speaking almost every day about how we can make this work. So it's a big goal of mine.

"I think it has the infrastructure and hospitality and the friendliness to have it."

Albon also believes Thailand can position itself as the motorsport capital of the region.

"There is not really the structure apart from Japan in motorsport for Southeast Asia.

"There needs to be one. And I would love it to be Thailand.

"I'd say there needs to be a culture and a structure where we need to make it happen.

"Also it would be amazing for me to be able to say that Thailand is almost the Asian home of motorsport or Formula 1."

L.Hussein--SF-PST