Alexander Albon, F1 driver

Albon logged all but one of the team's 28 points, making the top 10 seven times in grands prix, and also scoring in a sprint race.He started in the top six at Zandvoort, Monza and Las Vegas, and his only real mistake came when he spun off in Australia, although first-lap incidents in Japan and Brazil were also costly.He frequently took advantage of the car's good straightline speed to successfully ...

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The Grove-based outfit is heading into the F1 season finale in Abu Dhabi seven points ahead of AlphaTauri in the fight for seventh place in the constructors' contest. But with AlphaTauri having made impressive gains with its car since a major upgrade arrived at the Singapore Grand Prix, the buffer offers no guarantee to Williams that it can hold on. The battle is a significant one because the F1 ...

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Ahead of the event Albon was hopeful that the long straights and low ambient temperatures would favour the FW45 relative to Williams' rivals.  From the start of track action he figured at the sharp end, taking sixth in FP3 despite contact with the wall that led to a red flag and a premature end for the session.After that Albon admitted he took time to build up his confidence and get back up to ...

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Albon expects that the lower temperatures and long straights should both play to the strengths of the FW45.With qualifying commencing at midnight and the race itself starting at 10pm ambient temperature is expected to be in the 5-10C range."For Vegas, the stars should hopefully align," said Albon when asked about the race by Motorsport.com. "It's a track that should suit us in terms of its layout ...

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Albon was determined to quickly get past the Haas drivers, who were immediately ahead of him on the grid, because he expected them to be slow in the race.After his good start Albon was trying to pass Hulkenberg on the right when the German found himself squeezed by Magnussen on his left, and contact was made.Albon and Magnussen were eliminated on the spot, but Hulkenberg was able to continue, and ...

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Formula 1's Brazilian Grand Prix was red-flagged on the second lap on Sunday to allow barrier repairs following a first-corner crash.At the start Williams driver Alex Albon tangled with both Haas cars,  sending him and Kevin Magnussen into the wall.Starting behind Nico Hulkenberg and Magnussen in 13th, Albon made a good launch off the line to threaten both into Turn 1.But as he pulled ahead of ...

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The Grove team switched its R&D focus to next year’s some months ago and had not brought any new parts to the track, while rivals AlphaTauri, Haas and Alfa Romeo have continued to develop their cars.In the last two races, AlphaTauri has scored 11 points and jumped from 10th to eighth in the table, and the team now lies 12 points behind Williams.Albon accepts that there remains a chance that ...

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Albon showed huge promise in free practice for the race in Mexico City after finishing FP3 less than a tenth behind pacesetter Max Verstappen.But Albon and team-mate Logan Sargeant both struggled in qualifying after experiencing a shift in their car's handling, with Albon even suggesting the car had developed an issue.The Anglo-Thai still managed to salvage a Q3 spot in ninth but was demoted to a ...

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The Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz set the first somewhat representative times on the board in the opening minutes, with Leclerc's 1m19.283s heading his team-mate by 0.166s.They were soon demoted by Mercedes duo George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, Russell leading with a 1m18.644s while the Red Bulls sat out the opening third of the session.Gasly suffered a spin on his mediums run as ...

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Verstappen logged a 1m19.718s on softs, having dispatched Lando Norris from the top spot as the McLaren driver had been among the first of the frontrunners to switch to the red-walled tyre.Norris had gone just 0.008s faster than Verstappen's medium-tyre effort of a 1m20.245s - but the Dutchman returned to the top on his first soft run.Albon then set the best first sector as he offered Verstappen ...

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In recent seasons Williams has often suffered in windy conditions, and that was evident on Friday, when Albon could manage only 14th in a gusty qualifying session.He was only 17th in the hot conditions in Saturday afternoon's shootout, but he found extra pace come the evening sprint, and charged up to eighth place by the flag.He then gained another spot when Charles Leclerc, who had finished ...

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After a strong run of points finishes for Albon, Williams is currently in a solid seventh in the championship on 21 points, ahead of Haas on 12, Alfa Romeo on 10, and AlphaTauri on five.However, while Williams has no new parts coming through the system for the FW45 as it focuses on its 2024 car, its rivals have continued to bring updates, with AlphaTauri introducing a new package in Singapore and ...

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The Williams driver's comments came in the wake of an incident late in the Singapore GP when he was knocked into a spin by Sergio Perez, costing him a points finish.In Japan last weekend Albon had another close call with Perez, and was then a witness to the Mexican punting Kevin Magnussen off the road in what the Haas driver called a "shitty" move.The Red Bull driver received five-second penalties ...

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The Marina Bay track wasn't expected to suit Williams but Albon had a solid race, and a stop for new tyres under the Virtual Safety Car, mirroring the strategy used by Mercedes,  gave him extra pace in the latter stages of the race.Albon was in 10th and closing on Liam Lawson when Perez made contact as he tried to overtake in a late-race incident that wasn't shown on TV.The Red Bull driver ...

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Perez crossed the line in eighth place after appearing to lunge up the inside of the Williams driver into the sharp Turn 13 left-hander.The pair made contact at the apex and Albon, who was deflected off-line, had to hit the brakes and lock up his tyres to avoid the outside wall.Both drivers were summoned in front of the FIA race stewards, who reasoned that 11th-placed finisher Albon had attempted ...

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The Thai driver has a deal with Williams through to the end of next year and has been clear that he believes the Grove-based squad has a bright future under new team principal James Vowles.However, Albon's recent impressive form has seen him emerge as an obvious target for a number of top teams, including Red Bull and Ferrari, who have vacancies for 2025.Albon is well aware that interest around ...

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As expected, the low-drag Williams excelled on the fast straights in the Italian Grand Prix, with Albon frustrating McLaren's Lando Norris by holding him off for seventh until the finish thanks to his car's superior top speed.It is the latest in a string of strong results for Williams, which started the second half of the season tied with Haas, but now nearly doubled its points tally in two races ...

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After the flag in Italy, Vowles came on to the radio to tell Albon that he "made it look easy" while his engineer acknowledged that it was the Thai/British driver's best race yet with the team.In achieving both of his 2023 seventh-place finishes, Albon made good use of the strong straightline performance of the FW45 to conduct a stout defence.However, Vowles stressed that it was easier to do that ...

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Albon had started fourth and tumbled down the order as one of only five drivers to commit to slicks, opting not to make a late change to intermediates.He subsequently climbed back up the order and was running as high as sixth when the rain returned in the closing stages.Vowles conceded that staying out at the start ultimately turned out to be the wrong call."You either stop on lap one or lap two ...

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Albon was the star of Saturday qualifying by taking fourth on the grid on the high-downforce Zandvoort loop. Rookie team-mate Logan Sargeant also claimed his best qualifying result of the season in 10th, with a Q3 crash ruling out an even better grid position.Read Also:

Albon: Headwind masked Williams problems in F1 Dutch GP qualifying
Sargeant will "live and learn" after heavy F1 Dutch ...

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Albon topped Q1 on Saturday, ran third in Q2 and then completed the second row of the grid in the final shootout, having lapped 0.852 seconds adrift of clear polesitter Max Verstappen.Albon had expected a "rubbish" performance for the slippery Williams given the high-downforce requirements of Zandvoort which made the track "one of the worst ones" for the team.He had anticipated a tailwind into the ...

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Spa was seen by the Williams team as a track that would favour the low-drag characteristics of the FW45 and give Albon a chance to repeat the points-scoring form that he’s previously shown this year at Sakhir, Montreal and Silverstone.He jumped up from 15th to 10th with a strong first lap and ran as high as seventh before his early first stop.However, with his focus on saving his tyres, and ...

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Speculation in the Italian press last week suggested that Ferrari had set its sights on luring Albon onboard after Sainz's current contract runs out at the end of next year.However, Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has dismissed the idea of there being any movement with Albon, who himself made it clear in recent weeks that his own focus is on a long-term future with Williams.Vasseur, who ...

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After playing a starring role in Canada, sealing six points for seventh place, Albon just missed out on the top 10 in Austria. But the Anglo-Thai driver took another haul of points with eighth at Silverstone to lift Williams above Alfa Romeo in the constructors' standings, delivering all of the Grove team's 11 points so far.On a circuit that wasn't expected to be Williams' strongest track, Albon ...

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Having started eighth, the Williams driver was among those who ran long first stints and were able to time their pit stops to coincide with a virtual safety car period after Kevin Magnussen stopped on track.It quickly turned into a full safety car period and after the resumption Albon was running in ninth place.He managed to get by Carlos Sainz, and in the closing laps he was pushing Fernando ...

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