REPORT: Abu Dhabi Advancements, but no points

A one-stop strategy almost brought a point back to Grove for Williams Racing as Alex Albon crossed the line in P11 and Franco retired in an incident-filled 2024 Abu Dhabi GP.

Lap 1 collisions for others meant the two FW46 cars had to navigate through the carnage in their last competitive outing, and both drivers kept away from trouble.

Alex ran in P15, with Franco in P18, as a Virtual Safety Car allowed the marshals to recover Sergio Perez's retired Red Bull after the Mexican's contact with Valtteri Bottas.

Oscar Piastri, who Max Verstappen hit on the opening corner, ran into the back of Franco's car shortly after the restart as the pair raced down to the Turn 6 chicane.

Although Franco avoided spinning around, the incident had him limping back to the pit lane with a puncture, leaving the Argentine well adrift from the pack.

Franco pitted for Pirelli's Hard tyre and returned to the track in clean air but not in a position to gain time without outside intervention that never came.

An eventual power unit problem meant Franco had to return to the pit lane to retire the car and end his season in the garage.

A 10-second penalty for Piastri's role in hitting Franco was one of several punishments from the FIA that helped Alex ascend the order.

Guanyu Zhou, the car ahead of Alex for much of the race's first stint, had a five-second penalty for a false start, and Bottas in the sister Sauber picked up a 10-second penalty for hitting Perez on Lap 1.

Alex didn't need to wait for the stewards to pass Zhou, though, and a Lap 12 pit stop had the two racing on their return to the track, with Albono storming by into Turn 6 after using DRS to good effect.

Tyre management was how Alex spent his remaining laps of 2024, taking his Hards for 45 laps to the finish line.

More places ended up coming to Alex despite his Pirelli taking, as Bottas sent Kevin Magnussen into a spin, and Liam Lawson had a loose-fitted wheel that required a second stop.

The sole remaining FW46 reached P9 as others pitted onto the conventional two-stop strategy, and Alex spent his final 10 laps checking his mirrors for Fernando Alonso and Piastri, who each had much fresher tyres.

The newer Pirelli rubber won out, leaving Alex in P11 as he crossed the line but feeling buoyant about the future:

"Thank you, everyone, for this year," said Alex as he crossed the line.

"I've said it a hundred times, but I know it's not been easy, but I appreciate all of you.

"We have some good things coming next year, so I'm excited! I feel good about it."

James Vowles echoed the optimism with his post-race radio:

"Well said, Alex. Well driven. I think best we could have achieved today.

"A little bit of a difficult stint for you in a difficult time this year, but thank you for persevering.

"Thank you for your support. Thank you for your future vision."

James ended his message with words for everyone in the Williams Racing team:

"While I'm on this channel, well done to everyone — it's been a tough year, but it will only make us stronger."

After jumping out of the car, Alex shared that he knew it was going to be tough to retain a top-10 spot, saying, "With ten laps to go, I thought it would be hard to hold on.

"The tyre’s grip stayed quite strong, but the temperatures just dropped off. Once the track started to cool down, I couldn’t drive quickly enough to keep the temperature in the tyres, so it felt like qualifying laps from about 25 laps in until the end, making it a very physical race.

"It’s a shame not to reward the team with a points finish."

Albono then reflected on 2024 as a whole:

"My consensus of the season is that it’s been one of missed opportunities.

"It’s easy to focus on this latter end of the season and the incidents, but realistically, we started with the car overweight when we should’ve been fighting for points.

"We bought one major upgrade, as our plan was always to focus on the future and at that point, a lot of teams naturally overtook us.

"In the end, I’m not too upset because I’m here for the long term and I know as a team we’re not interested in being the best of the midfield, we’re putting in the work now for the future to be back fighting for wins and championships and I believe in this journey we’re on.

"Thank you to Franco for being a great teammate. He earned his place in F1 during these remaining races and I’m sure I’ll be seeing him somewhere on the grid soon."

After ending his race in the garage, Franco said, "Retiring the car was not the way I wanted to end the final race of the season.

"I had a good start and was trying to get through the race, but Piastri hit me which caused a puncture and some damage.

"We still had good pace after we changed tyres but unfortunately, we had to retire the car due to a suspected PU issue.

"The last couple of races have been really unlucky for me. It hasn’t been the end to the season that I wanted but that’s part of Formula 1.

"It’s still been a dream come true, but I obviously would’ve loved to have finished how we started.

"I’ve been working towards racing in F1 since I was very young and I’m so grateful to everyone at Williams for the opportunity to put me in the car for these last nine races."

Sven Smeets, Williams Racing's Sporting Director, summed up our Sunday by saying, "We started from P18 and P20 today which is never easy.

"After a few laps both drivers made some good progress and were driving well.

"Unfortunately, Franco was hit by Piastri resulting in a puncture, so we had to pit early.

"Afterwards his pace was good until we unfortunately had to retire the car due to a suspected PU failure.

"Not the last race we wanted for him, but he has showed he deserves his place on the grid.

"As planned, we boxed Alex early but as the race unfolded and many cars around us went for their second stop, we decided to stay out and try the one stop as it was the only way to stay in the points.

"The race was a few laps too long as the tyres dropped off, so at the end Alex finished P11 after a strong race.

"It has been a tough, long, and very hard season for the whole team but we have shown resilience and will return stronger next year."