(Motorsport-Total.com) – At this year’s Hungarian Grand Prix, Alexander Albon became the first driver to complete 100 races for Williams. A few races earlier, he had already surpassed Nigel Mansell as the driver with the most appearances for the team.
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It is an interesting statistic that perhaps illustrates the current inflation of Formula 1 races and the earlier attitude towards drivers. At the same time, it also shows how important Albon has become within the modern hierarchy of Williams.
In the days of Sir Frank Williams and Patrick Head, drivers were interchangeable. Why spend more money on a driver when it could instead be invested in development?
This explains why Sir Frank hesitated to give Mansell the lucrative contract he demanded after his 1992 world championship, or why Damon Hill had to leave in 1997. Williams had a clear idea of how much a driver was worth and did not deviate from it when demands exceeded that value.
That does not mean Williams and Head did not appreciate drivers at all. Today, under James Vowles, Williams views its drivers as an integral part of the team structure. It is therefore no surprise that Vowles wants to maintain the continuity of his driver pairing into 2027.
How Albon’s role at Williams has changed
Albon, for his part, has found a home at Williams. In his fifth season with the team, the Thai-British driver has grown into his role as an experienced leader, even though he has not yet had the opportunity to build on last year’s performance improvement.
Despite Williams’ efforts to start 2026 as best as possible, and despite foregoing the development of a fast, well-designed car in 2025 to focus on the successor model, not everything went smoothly.
This year’s FW48 could not meet expectations. The car was completed late and missed the shakedown in Barcelona. It was too heavy. The downforce was lower than hoped. Therefore, the team had to rethink its plans and is now pinning its hopes on the “B-version,” which is set to debut at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in September.
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“It feels like a home,” says Albon about Williams. “But like any home, there is a sense of responsibility among everyone who has been at Williams for more than three or four years and the desire to take this team where we want to see it.”
“So yes, it is a home. But precisely because of that, the start of the season is sometimes even more frustrating because you partly feel responsible. And like everything else, this team simply means a lot to me. I want to see it in a better position than it currently is.”
Williams problems everywhere …
Overall, points have been scarce so far in the 2026 season. The situation was exacerbated by the performance leap made by teams like Alpine. When the opportunity arose to score points, Williams generally took it.
In other cases, the team practically ran a test program during the ongoing season. After the collision with Oliver Bearman in Silverstone, Albon only collected kilometers with the revised front wing. This led to six pit stops as part of a last-minute changed deployment plan, while everyone else passed him by.
Williams’ performances so far this season have been hard for the drivers to bear, especially after last year’s form as the “Best of the Rest.” Weight was indeed a problem and contributed to the overall speed deficit. However, Albon explains that most difficulties behind the wheel of his FW48 are due to the overall lack of downforce.
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In addition, there are some bottlenecks in internal processes that the team faced in its efforts to develop a more advanced car. No wonder Albon feels that Williams needs to “catch up.”
“Generally, a lack of downforce brings numerous problems with balance,” he explains. “The balance generally becomes more extreme the more restrictions you have on the car. Curiously, the car is still somewhat similar to last year. We just have so much less downforce.”
… and solutions take time
“Given the rule changes and our competitors, we have to find a compromise from race to race. At the moment, everything is a compromise. We have not yet been to a race track where we could say: At low, medium, and high speed, the car feels good.”
These problems also include the tendency to drive on three wheels in corners. Carlos Sainz had already spoken about the difficulties of the car in “combined” corners, a problem that partly dates back to last year.
According to Albon, this phenomenon occurs mainly at low speed—or “generally anywhere you brake and steer at the same time, the car wants to drive on three wheels.” The problem amplifies itself. With less downforce, the car relies more on its mechanical grip.
For example, when going through a right-hand corner, the right rear wheel lifts while the body leans in the opposite direction. This creates the impression of less grip. The car then begins to slide outward, making it extremely difficult to drive the corner optimally.
It was not easy, but Williams and its drivers had to accept the disappointment and continue searching for solutions. The updates for Baku at the end of September are expected to be a benchmark for progress.
Albon clarifies: We are not worse than 2022
Albon says the team’s approach, given the unpromising start to the season, reflects the progress he has observed since joining Williams in 2022. At that time, the team had been owned by Dorilton Capital for just over a year, but the initial investments were at best unfocused.
There was a lack of leadership with current Formula 1 experience to guide the team. Jost Capito was very successful in motorsport but much of his experience then came from rallying. Williams needed Vowles, who came and identified the missing elements compared to his previous employer Mercedes.
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Some younger newcomers, Dan Milner and Claire Simpson, also came from Brackley. Williams also attracted Piers Thynne from McLaren. He is said to have a significant impact on improving the team’s production processes.
“I think the most important thing is a cultural change, the willingness and desire to be here,” says Albon about his time with the team. “I’ll give you an example: 2022 compared to today. In terms of performance, we are not completely different. In fact, we are better this year than in 2022.”
“Relatively speaking, however, 2022 felt like this was simply our place. You had almost resigned yourself to it. This year, we are obviously further behind than we want to be. But you feel that this is not right,” explains Albon.
“There is this: ‘What are we going to do now to at least get back to where we were last year?’ This will and confidence of the team is by far the biggest difference.”
Albon’s last chance in Formula 1?
To some extent, this assessment could also reflect Albon’s time at Williams. Williams itself was, even in its earlier phase when the team was near collapse and spent a long time at the back of the field, a chance for Albon to save his Formula 1 career.
His time at Red Bull was over. Although his phase with the team after replacing Pierre Gasly in mid-2019 started promisingly, it became increasingly difficult because he struggled to master a car tailored to Max Verstappen’s low-latency driving style.
Williams could then be seen as a last chance. But Albon has grown together with the team as it continues to plan its way back to the top. The hope is that 2026 is merely a temporary inconvenience and a learning experience for a more successful 2027 season.
The Williams story
After several years at Williams, Albon now knows where he wants to see the team. As he himself says, there is no longer acceptance of the former status as a backmarker. Instead, there is an unadulterated and genuine will to overcome this year’s problems.
For the now 30-year-old Albon, there is a feeling that this must happen sooner rather than later. Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso have stayed in the field into their forties, but the status of a world champion allows such longevity. Despite all he has achieved, Albon cannot rely on this bonus.
Golden times in Formula 2
However, the skills are there. When the author of this article first met Albon, he was about to start his second Formula 2 season. That was somewhat due to fortunate circumstances: His DAMS team initially offered him the seat free from race to race because his personal sponsors hesitated.
Eventually, Albon gathered enough support to continue the season. In the end, he found himself in a sporting fair three-way fight with George Russell and Lando Norris for the 2018 title.
The three were evenly matched throughout the season. In the Abu Dhabi finale, Norris finally snatched second place from Albon after both DAMS drivers—Albon and his later Williams teammate Nicholas Latifi—stalled their Dallara-Mecachromes. The cars were prone to this.
Since those golden days, Norris has won a title with McLaren, while Russell is in the middle of this year’s title fight with his Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli. And although Albon landed in a top team much faster than his former Formula 2 rivals, he had to start over after the unsuccessful stint at Red Bull.
Had he already seen the later success of Norris and Russell coming back then?
“To be honest, yes—I have always rated George very highly,” says Albon. “I raced less often against Lando than against George, but I also rated Lando equally. And generally, I think that Formula 2 year was an interesting season.”
Albon: I’m not “jealous” of Norris and Russell
“It was almost like a little ‘golden wave,’ because even the drivers who didn’t make it into Formula 1 that year went on to achieve great things: Antonio Fuoco, Nyck de Vries, and others,” he emphasizes.
“It was a great racing period. We pushed each other and probably got the best out of ourselves because we raced against each other. That only helped us when we came into Formula 1. I like to look back on that time. And I also follow Lando’s and George’s performances in many ways as a supporter.”
The close connection from that season gives Albon, according to his own statements, the motivation to be successful with Williams and to repeat the success of his friends in higher spheres. “In many ways, we were on different career paths,” he explains.
“I probably had the chance for a seat in a top team earlier than I was ready for. Now I have a different project ahead of me: to advance this team. Not that I don’t enjoy this task. I don’t look at the two and feel jealous of them. We are on our own journey. Hopefully, we can race against each other again in the not-too-distant future.”
And it would be just like old times—as long as it was at the front of the field.
The original English article comes from the monthly magazine Autosport.
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