Image courtesy of Williams Racing
Albon ready to be more demanding at Williams
Alex Albon says he is ready to be more firm with his requests at Williams as he has a better picture of what he wants following two years of Formula 1 experience.
The Red Bull driver lost his seat to Sergio Perez at the end of 2020 although he was retained as reserve last year, and then was signed by Williams as a replacement for George Russell. After his first day working at the Williams factory, Albon -- who will retain Red Bull links -- says his new team will trust him given his previous spells at both Red Bull and Toro Rosso.
“It’s great to be back,” Albon said. “It will be my third year in F1, but I feel like I gained a lot of experience over my time. I’m not this rookie coming into it now -- I know what I’m doing and what I want. It’s great to be able to work with this team who will listen to me -- we’ll listen to each other and try and get the most out of this car.”
Albon was at Williams' Grove, UK headquarters in September last year when his move was confirmed, but this week got a full factory tour before beginning simulator work and admits he is impressed by the scale of the Williams setup.
“It was very exciting to meet who I’m going to be working with and who’s going to be building my car. It’s a very international team and there are a lot of names that I haven’t quite got in my head yet, but that will come!
“Other than that, I got to meet my side of the garage in terms of engineering and through the simulator work, we learned how we do our business -- what makes me click and what makes them click.
“I’ve had a tour of everywhere. Some people see Williams as an intimate team, but it’s still massive! There’s still a lot of people here, from marketing to aero, the machine shop to accounting -- it’s a big team.”
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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