Alex Albon struggled to get comfortable with his car during his 18 months with Red Bull – but now feels at one with his machine at Williams.
The 26-year-old might have been fretting that his Formula 1 career was over after 18 months as a Red Bull driver. Following underwhelming results, Sergio Perez was brought in to replace him and there was no other seat on the grid for the British-Thai racer to fill in 2021.
So Albon raced in DTM while also completing the duties of a reserve driver that year. Red Bull still had him on the books, but Albon admits he was never at all comfortable driving their cars after making the unexpected step from sister team Toro Rosso.
"I'd say Toro Rosso I was comfortable with, and then already the jump from Toro Rosso to Red Bull I think was already a step," he said. "And then from 2019 to 2020 was another step towards the car that was like 'wow, okay, different to what I'm used to'."
Fortunately, the second chance came along when Williams agreed to sign him, initially on a one-year contract. And he has repaid that faith, scoring all three of the struggling team's points so far in 2022 and impressing even when the results have not come as hoped.
Albon has done enough to secure his long-term future in the sport. On Wednesday he was rewarded with a new multi-year contract at Williams, which will guarantee him a seat on the grid until at least the end of the 2024 season.
"I'd say the most positive thing I felt is, even though I had a year away, I feel like I'm confident in myself," he said. "I'm feeling good in the car. I think that's the first thing which I always talked about being tricky – that you drive certain cars and sometimes one car can feel like it drives you. It's like you're trying to wrestle it rather than letting the car do its thing.
"Very early on with the Williams, even if it has its styles of driving, I still felt like I could get on top of it. I think I felt confident enough to drive it how I wanted to drive it, and that kind of helps straightaway."
And now that his future is secured, he feels he has the "peace of mind" he needs to unlock even better performances with the pressure off. Albon added: "We've had a really good start to the season, really enjoyed my time... and yeah, you know, I'm really happy for the future. For the rest of the season, we’ll keep our heads down. We're going to focus on maximising the car and doing the best job we can, but to know that it goes beyond that is very exciting."
