Why Albon is the right pick for Williams

The driver market for 2022’s Formula 1 season was simply a domino run in waiting. It needed only Alfa Romeo’s announcement of Valtteri Bottas to start knocking the rest of the tiles down, as George Russell’s long-awaited move to Mercedes followed the day after. What was not expected was Williams making its own splash in the driver market quite so soon.

Wednesday’s news that Williams had extended Nicholas Latifi’s contract and signed up Alexander Albon for the now-vacant second seat caught many by surprise, but it’s probably good to have a balance in comparison to the tediously protracted Bottas and Russell announcements.

Williams has also put together something of a reunion for 2022, as Albon and Latifi were team-mates in 2018 at the DAMS Formula 2 squad. The two are not just familiar with each other, but get on incredibly well, meaning that the retention of a harmonious relationship within the team should not be an issue. Curiously, it also continues Williams’ streak of hiring drivers over six feet tall, compounding the myth that racing drivers need to be jockey-like in stature.

The task of replacing Russell somehow became another battleground between Mercedes and Red Bull, as if their on-track skirmishes and verbal jousts didn't define their rivalry enough. Red Bull, in particular Christian Horner, was keen on getting Albon back on the grid, and although some mused that if the full organisation was willing enough they’d push the Anglo-Thai driver into an AlphaTauri, the sister team’s principal Franz Tost is happy trying to hone the rough diamond of Yuki Tsunoda.

Alexander Albon and Nicholas Latifi on the podium together, FIA F2, 2018, Sochi

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Mercedes, meanwhile, was pushing to give Nyck de Vries the chance to step up from a title-winning Formula E campaign and make his way into F1. The 2019 F2 champion, who won the season after the title-contending trio of Russell, Lando Norris and Albon stepped up to F1, was unable to find a similar trajectory and instead found a home in the all-electric single seater championship.

Out of the two teams, you’d have expected Mercedes to get their way. The technical alliance between the Brackley and Grove squads will change for 2022, extending beyond a power unit supply deal to bequeath Williams with gearboxes and other ancillary components. Mercedes also got Russell through the door at Williams in the first place, and perhaps felt that it could leverage all of those ties to slot de Vries into the car.

Comparing their 2021 seasons so far, it also seemed like a foregone conclusion; de Vries claimed, or helped to claim, the first FE titles for the Mercedes set-up. Albon, meanwhile, has been resigned to DTM duty and re-enacting driving lines in filming days (okay, that only happened once, but it’s still amusing) as part of his Red Bull reserve duties.

"When I look at the whole career of Alex, what he has done and how he worked and his character, and also the comments of people having worked with him, we came to the conclusion that he is the right guy for us" Jost Capito

And yet, Williams picked Albon, and in doing so has made absolutely the right choice.

It seems that an encouraging level of the F1 paddock and its fanbase feels that Albon was hard done by during his season-and-a-bit at the main Red Bull team. Let’s not forget that he’d never driven an F1 car at the time of his signing by the Toro Rosso team, and only had a shakedown’s worth of experience prior to testing at Barcelona. By mid-season, he was accelerated into a Red Bull seat after Pierre Gasly was relegated the other way, and immediately forced to stack up against a future title contender in an unfamiliar car.

2019’s half-season was encouraging, but 2020’s full season was a struggle for Albon. Frequent tail-happiness in the A-spec Red Bull RB16 could be tamed by Verstappen but was too much for the less-experienced driver to contend with. Even Sergio Perez, a tenured, race-winning driver with multiple podium finishes to his name, is even struggling with the B-spec edition.

Alex Albon, Red Bull Racing RB16, spins

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Using Gasly as an example, the energetic Frenchman has managed to convert Red Bull disappointment into some stunning outings with Toro Rosso/AlphaTauri, crowned by his glorious Monza victory last year. While 2021 has been – so far – a season with fewer high peaks, Gasly’s omnipresence within the top 10 shows just how far he’s come. He’s now being talked about as a future top-team option, testament to his progress over the previous year and a half.

Albon is every bit as capable of replicating Gasly’s transformation. He’s already had to come back from numerous career setbacks too, showing terrific mental strength in coping with uncomfortable circumstances. Losing his Red Bull junior status the first time around was tough, and although some support from the former Lotus F1 junior programme afforded him a strong European F3 season in 2015, he couldn’t count on it for his move into GP3.

Marking himself as a potential F1 driver after battling with ART team-mate Charles Leclerc for the title, Albon stepped up to F2 with the French squad for 2017 – but his progress was interrupted by a broken collarbone as he also struggled to muster enough sponsorship to continue. Getting the DAMS seat for 2018 on a race-by-race deal, as Albon couldn’t afford to pay for the drive, was an act of great generosity by the late Jean-Paul Driot. But it crucially proved to be the season that set him on his way.

Having been more than a match for Russell during the excellent 2018 F2 title battle, and for Norris too, Albon now has a home to set about reigniting his F1 aspirations and once more match his contemporaries as they set the championship alight. Like-for-like, he seems to be an excellent replacement for Russell in the Williams camp, and has plenty of experience with a top team to impart as the Dorilton-owned outfit continues its ascent up the F1 grid. There is a wave of optimism at Williams, one that continues to grow under Jost Capito’s tenure, and bringing in a highly-motivated youngster (Albon’s still only 25) with top-team experience would fulfil the dream of every LinkedIn recruiter in the known universe.

PLUS: Why 'family' still comes first in Williams' new Capito era

Alex Albon, Williams

Photo by: Williams

Capito himself said that Albon’s experiences were one of the main draws for Williams to whisk him away from the sidelines.

"I look at what Alex has done in the past. I think he has done a great job and has been the team-mate of Max [Verstappen], which is something very difficult, as much as it is being the team-mate of [Lewis] Hamilton," Capito said.

"We’ve seen at McLaren how difficult it is for Daniel to come into a new car so I think it is very difficult to judge somebody on just one season. You have to see the whole career, what he has done and there are always different circumstances. You can’t just judge in single race results. So when I look at the whole career of Alex, what he has done and how he worked and his character, and also the comments of people having worked with him, we came to the conclusion that he is the right guy for us for next year."

Williams’ signing of Albon underlines its continued growth and confidence. Latifi’s extended deal gives the team continuity (and, helpfully, extra cash), while Albon will pick up from where Russell left off and help to drive the once-great team forward again

That’s all not to say that de Vries wouldn’t have been a good option. Formula E is, after all, a particularly difficult nut to crack, and for de Vries to be the most consistent driver of the field in his second season underlined his worth as a driver. But he’s also lightning-quick, having been able to string together impressive qualifying times during his F2 days. Arguably one of his finest drives was the wet-to-dry Hungaroring feature race in 2018, where he carved into Lando Norris’ commanding lead like a hot knife through butter as the circuit began to dry up, and dispatched the then-Carlin driver for victory.

Generally, de Vries’ Achilles’ heel was race management. In races where tyre wear was low de Vries could usually thrive, but at circuits where tyre life was marginal, there would be occasions where he’d overcook it too soon and start to drop down the order.

2018’s F2 Bahrain sprint race was one such example, as Prema attempted to introduce a pitstop and replicate the stunning burn-from-the-stern drive Leclerc had managed in the previous year. It made sense to try it again; tyre wear had been high and temperatures sweltering in the desert, and de Vries sacrificed a lead to make it happen again. He finished fifth, failing to make the progress he needed as he probably tried to do too much too soon.

Nyck de Vries, Mercedes F1 W11

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Formula E will have been the perfect tonic for that, forcing de Vries to conform to managing energy and temperatures. But just how much of that is transferrable to F1 is unknown, since drivers seldom make the jump in that direction.

There’s still an opportunity for de Vries to get an F1 drive with Alfa Romeo, if Mercedes feels inclined to help him out – but he has current incumbent Antonio Giovinazzi, reserve driver Callum Ilott, among others to battle for the remaining real estate on the grid. Albon was in the mix for the Alfa drive too, but Red Bull firmly had its heart set on getting its reserve driver into Russell's old job.

One of the key takeaways from Albon’s signing is that Williams now feels able to resist any lobbying from Mercedes over its decision-making process. Having been previously burdened by its past successes, Williams is now upwardly mobile with fresh investment and management, and thus picked the driver it wanted. Such was Red Bull’s commitment to securing Albon a drive, it also agreed to release him, alleviating any concerns from Mercedes’ end about his involvement with the team.

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Regardless, Williams’ signing of Albon underlines its continued growth and confidence. Latifi’s extended deal gives the team continuity (and, helpfully, extra cash), while Albon will pick up from where Russell left off and help to drive the once-great team forward again. Although Williams is still at the start of its journey back to the top, it’s taken another big step forward.

George Russell, Williams FW43B

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images