Alexander Albon has dyed his hair. Once more.
The final time RaceFans sat down one-on-one simply ten months prior in Paul Ricard, the perennially playful Albon’s head was a hanging scarlet. Now, with the blue waters of the Monaco harbour shimmering within the gentle of the wonderful late spring solar, Albon’s hair is now a superb blonde.
However that’s not all that’s modified about him in that point. He has additionally gained a contract extension, misplaced an appendix and added two extra factors to his tally at Williams – the staff that helped reignite a System 1 profession that was at risk of ending simply two years in the past.
So whether or not it’s the hair, the climate, the job safety or a mix of the three, Albon’s trademark cheeky grin is on full show as ever.
In case your notion of the 27-year-old has been fashioned from his ever-evolving hairstyles or his antics on social media, it’s straightforward to develop the fallacious impression about Alex Albon as an expert. Whether or not it’s the roughly 600 photographs of him making a peace signal on the digicam on Instagram, his penchant for dyeing his hair a brand new neon shade on a month-to-month foundation or rocking as much as Miami with a helmet designed like a golf ball in tribute to his skilled athlete companion, you’d be forgiven for assuming he’s a driver who doesn’t take his racing as critically as his fellow rivals on the grid.
However after nearly 30 grands prix at Williams – probably the most he’s ever began with a single staff in System 1 – Albon is now the talisman for probably the most under-resourced and overly-stretched staff on the grid. When the helmet goes on, Albon is as severe a competitor as any of his rivals – and he’s keen that nobody will get the fallacious impression about him.
“I feel most individuals contemplate me as a ‘good’ individual,” he begins, “however on the identical time, I’m additionally a really passionate individual and racing means rather a lot to me. So once I go about my racing, efficiency – greater than something – is my most important precedence out of every thing else that comes right into a race weekend.
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“After I need to carry out, there is no such thing as a compromise in that aspect. So once you see me with my helmet on, and even with the individuals right here within the staff, I do assume it surprises a number of individuals.”
Albon isn’t alone within the room. He’s chaperoned, as drivers all the time are, by members of his staff – a few of whom have been current the final time RaceFans spoke with the Williams driver. However two males who’re not with them are former staff principal, Jost Capito, and technical officer FX Demaison – two leaders who each needed Albon to be “more durable with the staff” out of the automotive. To not be “too good”.
Each figures will not be with Williams any longer, however Albon insists he has taken that recommendation on board and has been making use of it in 2023, his second season on the Grove-based squad.
“Folks don’t actually see that aspect of me an excessive amount of. I feel these guys may advocate for that,” he says, trying on the Williams workers round us.
“I bear in mind chatting with Jost, taking these feedback on board. I feel simply creating and maturing as an individual as properly, you type of begin to set up a bit extra of a administration mindset and character when it comes to what you need within the automotive, how do you get one of the best out of individuals – this sort of model.
“I feel there’s a component that I do every thing I can to get one of the best out of myself. And relying on the circumstances, the folks that I’m speaking to, the relationships I’ve with individuals within the staff, typically I’m that good man, typically I’m not. Relies upon what individuals want and the way I get what I would like out of the scenario. To not say I’m utilizing individuals, however, on the finish of the day, I need to rating factors, I need to get his staff into podium positions and ultimately win races. In order that’s my most important drive.”
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The place Albon stands out is how sincere and genuine he’s about himself. Few of his friends on the grid could be so prepared to self-analyse their interpersonal work dynamics in such a means. But Albon has nothing he feels he must draw back from or hold to himself in terms of individuals’s perceptions of him. If something, he’s wanting to appropriate any misconceptions about him as a driver.
“I feel in case you converse to the staff, you’d get a greater concept of it,” he explains. “For instance, in case you had my radio for an entire race, you’d be like, ‘who the hell is that this man?’.”
Albon particularly highlights Miami for example, a race the place he completed slightly below ten seconds and 4 locations outdoors of the factors after spending many of the 57 laps complaining to his engineer, James Urwin:
“We’re gonna lose extra time getting overtaken than we’re something doing this.”
“For me, this pushing an excessive amount of shouldn’t be good for the tyres. I don’t agree with this.”
“Okay, so don’t inform me to push!”
“In visitors, I’ve obtained nothing.”
It’s all removed from the happy-go-lucky persona he presents himself on-line or when greeting followers within the paddock.
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“However I’m like that type of the entire race,” Albon explains. “And so individuals decide up on it and go ‘oh, you appeared a bit annoyed’ and it’s somewhat bit like ‘no, I’m truly like that on a regular basis, each session I’m driving’. So the staff know that, however outdoors they don’t. And other people don’t join the dots.
“That’s simply who I’m. We discuss, we talk about. I combat again on loads of issues, however on the identical time, we’re type of having somewhat little bit of a bicker – like a relationship. However I feel it’s simply that you just see a lot of me that’s pleasant and blissful that you just don’t see the opposite aspect. As a result of additionally I don’t present it. I don’t promote it – I don’t must market it.”
With Capito not round, Albon is racing below his fourth totally different staff principal in his fourth season in F1 within the type of former Mercedes strategist James Vowles. Introduced in with the clear goal of putting in an identical profitable tradition to that which Vowles has been immersed in ever since Mercedes bought the Brackley-based staff, he has shortly grow to be a much more seen and public-facing chief of Williams than Capito had been earlier than him.
However within the simply over three months since Vowles joined Grove, has Albon felt a shift in how Williams function in that point?
“Probably not as a lot as you’d anticipate,” Albon admits. “I deal every day, probably, rather more with the engineers and the factories, so on that aspect issues haven’t modified an excessive amount of. However with, you may name them, the ‘larger ups’, is it totally different? Sure.
“Identical to extra personality-wise than the rest, I’ve to say. Clearly Jost was a bit extra of a flamboyant, high-energy type of man. James could be very analytical – nearly extra like an engineer type of model. You possibly can inform he thinks rather a lot earlier than he talks and all that type of stuff. I really feel like I’ve to up my vocabulary once I discuss to James.”
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Vowles has made a transparent effort over his first seven grands prix in command of Williams to vocally reward, encourage and even calm his two drivers when obligatory. With Albon’s staff mate Logan Sargeant nonetheless settling into life as a rookie in System 1, Vowles has been wanting to nurture his two younger drivers whereas additionally displaying them the religion he has of their skills within the automotive.
“I really feel like I can converse to James fairly brazenly in regards to the automotive and arrange and he tends to essentially perceive,” Albon says.
“He does some driving himself which, truly, I feel it helps. It helps him perceive what we are saying and the way we talk issues. There’s a degree the place he can really feel what we really feel, which is sweet, particularly once you’re making an attempt to vary philosophy or arrange within the automotive or path for subsequent 12 months. It’s good that he can perceive why we battle and the way as drivers Logan and I’ve to compromise our driving kinds to make the automotive fast, mainly. So he’s been good to speak to.”
Albon is contracted at Williams till no less than subsequent 12 months. Regardless of some mishaps at instances – most notably in the course of the opening laps in Melbourne when he crashed out whereas operating within the high ten – Albon has continued to place his Williams larger up the sphere than many would have anticipated the FW45 to be, together with some extent within the season opener in Bahrain.
Turning Williams round to flee from the purgatory of the again of the order isn’t any small activity. As Vowles advised RaceFans just lately his imaginative and prescient for Williams is targeted “not this 12 months, however over the following years” and would require “full ground-up, dig every thing up, break it, structural adjustments.”
However the future in System 1 is unstable. The incoming new energy unit system in 2026, the inflow of manufactures to the game and attainable new entries on the grid provide a wealth of alternatives. Not only for Williams, however for Albon too. Nevertheless, he says that his focus is solely on Williams and serving to Vowles carry them out of their years-long droop in the back of the sphere to seek out sustainable success longer-term.
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“It’s laborious for me to look that far in entrance,” he says when introduced with the prospect of 2026.
“After I’m the place we’re as a staff proper now, we’ve nonetheless obtained to deal with ourselves. Some issues we have to enhance are, I don’t need to say ‘primary’, however we’ve started working on another issues ourselves. I depart that type of manufacturing unit discuss extra in the direction of James in that aspect of issues.
“Actually talking, as a result of all these things is thus far sooner or later, it’s going to be a giant 12 months. Clearly extra producers are wanting to return in – I feel the game’s by no means been as wholesome. A staff like Williams, I feel, is sort of engaging to those type of producers. So on our aspect, it’s nonetheless within the current day and I feel every thing helps you – the extra profitable we’re, the extra we will entice producers and grow to be our personal staff. However for now, I feel we’re focussed on ourselves.
“Even now we share loads of elements from Mercedes and that’s been very helpful for us. So going to the long run, we do want to enhance what now we have again on the manufacturing unit to grow to be this manufacturing unit staff. However on the minute, there’s no secret that loads of the elements Mercedes makes. It advantages us. It’s an enchancment. So till we repair some points and enhance ourselves, then that’s once I guess the producer talks can occur.”
Till then, Albon seems a driver at residence at Williams. The staff that gave him a second likelihood at a profession in System 1, and who he has been combating for to repay that perception in him each time he will get within the cockpit. Whether or not he’s nonetheless in Williams blue come 2026 is unknown – very similar to what color his hair might be.
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