Because the Autodromo Nazionale Monza is famously known as the “Temple of Speed,” securing an aerodynamic tow down the circuit’s massive straights is one of the most critical strategies during qualifying. However, executing the perfect slipstream is far more complicated than simply driving closely behind another car.
Following the qualifying session for the 2026 Italian Grand Prix, Williams driver Alexander Albon provided a surprisingly detailed look into the exact science and tactical coordination required to pull off a successful tow.
Advertisement
Heading into Saturday’s session, Albon was already facing a massive 20-place grid penalty for fitting his FW48 with a fifth Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) and a fourth Control Electronics Unit (PU-CE). Knowing he would start at the very back of the grid regardless of his lap time, Williams immediately shifted his qualifying program to entirely support his teammate, Carlos Sainz.
While Albon ultimately qualified 18th, his aerodynamic assistance on the straights successfully dragged Sainz safely into Q2.
“Just a matter of doing the team game as it were, and get Carlos into Q2, which is what we achieved,” Albon explained simply. “So that’s all we did.”
When pressed on how difficult it actually is to coordinate a slipstream between two Formula 1 cars traveling at over 340 km/h, Albon immediately pushed back on the idea that it is just a brute-force tactic.
Advertisement
“There’s a lot of science in it actually,” Albon detailed to the media. “A lot depends on the car that you’re following. Generally speaking, you want to follow a fast car because you get the tow in sector one, and then they pull away, and you get the clean air for sector two and sector three.”
However, pulling a teammate along requires a completely different approach, largely due to the identical performance characteristics of the two cars.
“When you have a teammate who has a similar V-trace as you, you just try to be smart with it and give the best tow out of Turn 10 as you can,” Albon noted, referring to the telemetry graphs that map out a car’s velocity profile. “That’s really how it works.”
While the focus during a slipstream is usually on avoiding aerodynamic dirty air in the corners, Albon revealed that tire management actually dictates how the slipstream gap must be managed across multiple qualifying attempts. Because the lead car is sacrificing its own lap without fresh rubber, the trailing car has to adjust its following distance as the session progresses.
Advertisement
“We’re not going to waste soft tires on tows on new tires, so each run you do, you’re running more and more used sets,” Albon explained. “So basically Carlos has to give a bigger and bigger gap so that he doesn’t get too close into sector three.”
Though acting as a mobile windbreak for his teammate completely compromised his own session, Albon accepted the reality of his grid penalty with grace. “I mean, maybe not the funnest thing to do, but was the right thing to do, and now we can just focus on tomorrow,” he concluded.
