Radio Replay: Alex’s Sprint charge over the airwaves

The 2023 Qatar Grand Prix was an incredibly tough three days for everyone in the team, not least our drivers, but there was a clear high point for everyone involved with Williams Racing.

When Alex lined up P17 for the fourth F1 Sprint of the season, a maiden points finish in this format looked improbable, but not impossible.

With limited knowledge of the tyres around this venue, the decision on what rubber to start on was going to be key, and so it proved.

Discover how Alex’s Saturday evening panned out across the airwaves as we highlight our key moments via our Radio Replay.

The teams will only find out the tyres every driver is starting on just a handful of minutes before lights out. Passing this information across to our racers is key, as different compounds of tyres take longer to get up to the optimal working window than others.

Up until this point, the strong wind that sweeps across the desert surrounding Lusail had made life incredibly difficult for the drivers. The news that wind speed was now dropping would have been music to the ears of most in the field.

It’s safe to say the start of Saturday’s Sprint was pretty hectic, with two full Safety Car periods not allowing for a full racing lap to be completed until Lap 7.

What you’ll see above is just a snippet of the constant communication between Alex and his Race Engineer, James Urwin.

What the sprint race on a Saturday does allow for is learnings to be gathered ahead of the full Grand Prix, and that’s what Alex is sharing above so the trackside team and those back at Grove know how we should be setting up the car for Sunday.

Some of you reading this might find changing the radio station whilst you drive a tough task. Now imagine doing that several times over, all whilst trying to manage tyre, brake and engine temperatures. Oh, and that car of yours is one of the most powerful in the world!

You might wonder how a driver can tell what they’re doing whilst changing these switches, which are often smaller than the button on your favourite jacket.

The colour referenced by the Race Engineer represents a switch on his steering wheel. When Alex makes a change, his dashboard display will then show that colour so he knows he’s changing the correct switch.

Back to the Sprint and we’re over the halfway stage and there has been plenty of attrition. Alex is running P11 and this is the first time he finds out that more positions are up for grabs, as those who started on the red-walled Pirelli tyres are struggling.

Alex is once again informed of the tyre situation immediately around him and is reminded that he boasts a significant straight-line speed advantage over the Alfa Romeo in front.

The term “go race” references another switch that Alex must hit on his wheel, putting the car into the right setting for the restart.

From now on, you won’t hear Alex speak until the chequered flag. It’s full-focus from our No23 as he charges into the points-paying positions.

It’s an intense finish to the Sprint, and Alex manages to pass Bottas, Gasly and Alonso before finding himself in P8 and all over the gearbox of Leclerc.

James’ use of the term ‘overtake’ refers to the energy deployment from the FW45s Energy Recovery System, or ERS.

The ERS harnesses wasted kinetic energy from the brakes plus the wasted heat energy from the turbocharger to provide added power for a limited amount of time over a lap.

You’ll often see drivers use this when defending or when they’re looking to make a move, as Alex is in this case.

If it’s a dry race and you see the red lights at the rear of a Formula 1 car blinking, it means that the driver is conserving energy.

After a brilliant fight, Alex made his way to P8 and almost pipped Leclerc on the line – the Ferrari beating him to the flag by just 0.004s.

However, Alex was quick to point out that the Ferrari was taking some rather interesting lines on the final tour of Lusail and it became clear that we could be set to climb further into the points post-race, much like we did in Miami last season.

Just as Alex was hopping out of his FW45 following a job well done, James Urwin shares that the FIA systems did indeed note Leclerc’s four track limit violations and within the hour he’d be handed a five-second penalty – Alex climbed to P7.