Williams ‘scored points whenever we had the chance to in 2022’

In brief

Williams ‘scored points whenever we had the chance to in 2022’ – Albon

Alexander Albon believes his Williams team scored points every time they had the opportunity to in 2022.

Williams finished tenth and last in this season’s constructors’ championship after scoring a total of just eight points. Despite scoring top ten finishes in just five of the year’s 22 grands prix – including Nyck de Vries scoring an eighth place in Monza when Albon was medically unable to race – Albon believes his team still capitalised on the few opportunities they had in the season.

“I feel like the biggest one was being healthy for Monza,” Albon said. “That would have been my main points opportunity.

“Other than that, I’m not sure. I really do feel like in the moments where we’ve had the chance to score points, we have. Unfortunately, that’s where we are this year. It’s been a year where we’ve had everything to go perfectly for us, a bit of fortune as well, and that gets us into the points.

“We don’t want that to happen next year, we need to work hard, we need to really nail the balance issues that we’ve been having this year and if we can get on top of that, I feel like as a team we always seem to be maximising opportunities and that’s good.”

Schumacher pole in Brazil would not have saved his drive – Steiner

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner says that Mick Schumacher’s future with the team would not have been saved had he taken pole position in Interlagos rather than his team mate.

Kevin Magnussen stunned the paddock by securing pole position in Friday qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix in wet conditions. Schumacher qualified slowest in 20th and lost his drive at the end of the season to Nico Hulkenberg. Steiner says Schumacher would not have been retained even if he had been the one on pole in Brazil.

“Nothing would have changed,” Steiner said. “Because you cannot make this decision on an emotional one race or one qualifying result. That would be wrong. It could be wrong both ways.”

Bottas planning to compete in Race of Champions

Valtteri Bottas says he is planning to take part in next year’s Race of Champions over the off-season.

The all-star racing event featuring racing drivers from various international motorsport series will take place in Sweden at the end of January. Bottas says he is…