Will Alex Albon Deliver In His Return To F1

Alex Albon’s racing career is somewhat of an enigma – a mystery with a plethora of twists and turns which he himself couldn’t have foreseen.

Had Daniel Ricciardo not taken the bold decision to depart the Red Bull team for pastures new at Renault for 2019, Albon would likely now be languishing in the mid-pack in Formula E in a comparatively disappointing Nissan.

That was where his career was headed before the surprise call-up from Red Bull, whilst actually at Formula E’s pre-season test with Nissan, offering him a chance alongside Daniil Kvyat at Toro Rosso as Pierre Gasly’s replacement.

Impressing so much in the first half of the year, Albon was swapped for Gasly mid-season and made his debut for the Red Bull team.

He hadn’t even driven a Formula 1 car before the same year that he was parachuted into the seat alongside Max Verstappen, after only half a season in the Toro Rosso.

During that first half of 2019, Albon looked like a hugely promising candidate on the young driver front – which included the likes of similarly heralded Lando Norris, George Russell and Charles Leclerc.

The latter pairing have since gone on to sign contracts with two of Formula 1’s biggest teams, with the newly re-signed Norris and McLaren long-term partnership also one of the strongest throughout the entire Formula 1 grid.

Image: Formula 1

Albon meanwhile was thrown out cold after 18 months at Red Bull for 2021, as they chose to put aside their once-star young driver in favour of late 2020 race winner and Racing Point outcast Sergio Perez.

The Thai-English driver spent a year on the sidelines for Red Bull as test and reserve driver, but Albon himself actually believes this puts him in good stead and should “serve me well” for his fresh start at Williams for 2022 – of course not just being a fresh start for Albon, but also for Formula 1’s technical regulations which easily offer Williams’ best chance of making a big step through the field.

The team has made a huge jump before from a regulation change. A brand new deal with Mercedes for 2014, just as the hybrid power units were introduced – a rule set Mercedes dominated from the off – elevated Williams from P9 in the constructors’ standings to P3.

Image: Formula 1

Albon and Latifi will of course be hoping for a similar upturn in fortune for the Grove-based squad, but this time around it would need to be as a consequence of the design team exploiting as drastic a loophole in the rules as the ‘double diffuser’ once was, before F1 shuts it down or a rival finds a way to introduce it themselves.

However, for Albon’s return to be classed a ‘success’, this shouldn’t require front-of-the-grid appearances or huge results

Looking back at how hasty and political the Albon-Williams-Red Bull deal looked on the surface, Albon will be in somewhat of a quandary right now. Does he concentrate on cementing himself as the team’s number one driver – something that will be very hard to crack with a teammate who’s well-established at the team already, or does he look to do all he can to impress Red Bull enough into giving him another chance.

You could probably argue these go hand-in-hand – Red Bull would want a driver possessing the characteristics of a lead driver, in case of a shock Verstappen exit.

Image: Williams Racing

The fact is though that the Williams team is unlikely to be a championship contender, therefore Albon needs to showcase his skills in ways that will get him noticed in a similar fashion to that of the driver he’s replacing – Mercedes recruit George Russell.

Albon is a hugely talented driver, but one who in F1 at least fell into fantastic opportunities at just the right time, but circumstance meant he would be eventually overshadowed by a team built completely around one driver with a car said to be on the opposite end of the scale to the one he’d just mastered.

Wherever the newly-revealed Williams FW44 places the team in 2022, Albon needs to make a solid impression on Williams, Red Bull and the sport itself. However for a driver of his calibre, it should be more likely to happen than not.

Author: Danny Herbert