After a turbulent career so far in Formula 1, Alex Albon’s future in the championship is finally secure with his multi-year deal at Williams Racing.
Despite being only 26-years-old, the Anglo-Thai driver has had his fair share of drama in his short F1 career so far.
Albon joined the championship in 2019 with Red Bull Racing’s sister team Toro Rosso (known now as Scuderia AlphaTauri), where he was praised for his fast learning and impressive driving ability.
By the halfway point of the 2019 season, Albon was promoted to Red Bull to replace the underperforming Pierre Gasly.
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The pair switched places, with Gasly going back to the team he joined Red Bull from.
Despite many having high hopes that Albon would deliver alongside Max Verstappen, the Williams driver struggled to perform with the pressure of the Austrian seat arguably succumbing to him.
Albon struggled during the 2020 season and was ultimately dropped by Red Bull and replaced by Sergio Pérez.
This left the driver without a seat in 2021; however, he ventured off to race in the DTM championship during his year out from F1.
Albon performed well in the series, in which he competed with the backing of Red Bull.
Throughout 2021, Red Bull bosses insisted that they were trying to get Albon a seat back in the championship for 2022, which they successfully did with Williams.
Since returning, the Anglo-Thai driver has done brilliantly and has been by far the best driver at Williams.
Albon has done so well, in fact, that he was offered a multi-year contract by the British team, which he happily accepted.
It means that for the first time in his F1 career he has a sense of security in the series, giving him the chance to plan for the future.
“Yes, it’s always tough having a year out, you get hungry, get motivated,” Albon said to Channel 4 when asked if he’s enjoying being back in F1.
“And when you get the opportunity to be back in Formula 1, you take it with both hands and the hard work almost starts then, all that hard work before is just getting back into it, getting another opportunity.
“But now that I’m back in one of the very first things you look for is stability. And you know, it sounds silly, but what is one of your first goals of being back in F1 is to keep staying in F1.
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“It feels really good to have that, I haven’t had that in pretty much my whole racing career, as to be fair most drivers do [sic], it is a tough sport.
“So, to have a bit of longevity to it, it feels like what we can do now is really plan for the future as well with Williams.
“A lot of the stuff that we need to change to the car, we’re going to be focusing already on next year and that chemistry, that communication, we can already start now, we already do have meetings about what we want to do with the car for 2023.”