The Thai-British driver told the pits on the radio that he disagreed with the message of pushing the tyres, and at another point in the race he felt he should be doing so rather than managing them.

Albon slipped back to 14th after a frustrating race after an encouraging 11th in qualifying.

“I think at the time I was told to manage the tires that we didn’t catch the car in front of us,” Albon said.

“So either try and not manage and try to catch up to the cars and pass them, or just stay behind.

“I’d rather be aggressive and then have the consequences later than never try and just get done in the end. So that’s why I think I said I don’t, I really don’t agree with it.

“But at the same time, we wanted to push the tires really hard in the first couple of laps, and that made the tire grains bigger. So I didn’t agree with that either. So it was all a little bit.”

Alex Albon, Williams FW45

Photography: Williams

Albon said his race performance reflected the true state of the car relative to its rivals after a strong performance in qualifying, with the nature of the Miami circuit not working in Williams’ favor.

“It’s more that we haven’t kept pace,” he said. “So we’re just trying to do things differently. I do think we’re the ninth or 10th slowest car, and that’s the reality.

“We just made the most of it most weekends, there were temperatures on the track where the tires did get hot, and that exposed our weaknesses.

“Today was a very clear example that these circuits are generally not for us.

“We did a good job in qualifying, that’s our real speed today. So it’s just one of those things. Hopefully we can go to another track that suits us better.”

Like other drivers, Albon was frustrated with the difficulty of passing the DRS zone after drivers voiced opposition to the FIA’s decision to shorten it.

“It frustrates me especially because I’m in a place where you need to be quick. So Turn 7, if you go slow there, you tend to miss the DRS and then the car behind you has it.”

“So the timing is wrong. It’s a bad DRS zone for our cars!

“We’ve been very vocal about shortening the DRS areas all year so far. They’re still adamant about shortening them, and we kind of forewarned it. It happened and it came as no surprise to anyone.”

He added: “I think shows are important. If everyone is watching these kinds of games, no one will enjoy them. At the same time, we say we can’t do things at the last minute.

“But even in a sprint race, the whole tire strategy is last minute. So I’m wondering what’s last minute and what’s not. I think it depends very much on the question being asked!”