Alex Albon: making history with Williams

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3:00Alex Albon reaches a major milestone in 2026 When he becomes the driver with the most race starts in Williams history Williams gave me my opportunity to get back onto the Formula 1 grid I don't think a lot of teams would have taken that risk. I would love to stay. I think that for me, it's unfinished business. Of course, it would be lovely to win races and score podiums. And I have that desire that my time will come again. That hope is with Williams.

3:30Here on F1 Beyond the Grid with me, Tom Clarkson. Alex tells me what that Williams record means to him and how he's changed on and off the track since joining the team back in 2022. We also talk about Alex's relationship with teammate Carlos Sainz and whether Williams have reset their targets after a disappointing start to the new era of Formula One. We're in this position more because we were taking a lot of risks. We want to be thinking outside the box and thinking as far ahead as we can and think realistically we bit off more than we can shoot. We were maybe too ambitious.

4:12Alex great to have you on the show again how are you very good thank you not too bad but we're in Monaco so um nice to be home home race very relaxed I was thinking this is actually a good space to have an apartment like this is bigger than most apartments I might this bigger than I might inquire how much this place is to rent and how I'm going to rent this place and I could lease it out to Formula One. Now that's a business plan, a nice little side hustle for you right there. Do you know, while we're talking Monaco, you know how it normally clashes with the Indy 500 this year, it clashes with another American event, the US Open Golf, where your fiance Lily is competing.

4:51It's in California. So what? It is. Home tournament for her too. Yeah, but no sleep for Alex Albon this weekend if you're going to be watching her hole by hole, right? Yeah, no, that's going to be tricky I will normally so she will wake up around 3pm our time more or less that's pretty much how our relationship was for 6 7 years now so she wakes up around 3 o 'clock and then she'll pretty much start playing around the time that I'm having dinner and then I'll watch maybe the first 4 or 5 holes and then then I do have to sleep I'm not I love her but not that much I do need to sleep. On a serious note, does it help having a professional sports person as your other half?

5:37Because you understand the pressures. Yes. I think what I realized growing up and spending time with more and more people, it's very interesting to see how you know people that have come through some sorts of sporty backgrounds when they can really empathize with the sacrifices and the the hardships the commitment that it takes to do whatever you're doing and um that can be not in a in a bad way but you can notice people who don't know what that is and it can almost be confusing in many ways to people that but they're they have no you know they have no fun they're they're just these kind of born and bred this is all they care about kind of thing but with with lily of course she's very much on a very similar path to me.

6:26It's all we've grown up doing. And it helps a lot. I think in just general life, general conversations, when we're having our lows, having our highs, whatever it may be, you have a sounding board that resonates very closely to you. So it is very lucky to have that. Congratulations on the engagement, by the way. Thank you. Have you come up with a date for the big day? I have. I won't reveal it, but I have. It will be... We're pushing on, just like Formula One. updates and upgrades are coming every week so uh so yeah we uh we're forced in my head look while we're talking marriages can we talk about you and williams because long marriage well you've been with the team since 2022 yes and the upcoming spanish grand prix is going to be race number 96 for you for the team which is going to be more than any other driver in their history how does that make you feel it doesn't feel it doesn't feel fair first of all because we do so many races nowadays um we have something very special coming up for spain for i believe it's spain as i peer over to my shoulder managers just absolutely focused on not that uh yes so so we are focused on on something pretty cool i won't give away too much but i am surpassing nigel for this milestone.

7:53And we had him in the garage in Miami. I think he lives out in Florida. Yeah, he has for years. For years. I had him around the garage with his family. And he's so nice. He's honestly one of the kindest. He really appreciated just us spending time with him, Carlos and me, to be fair. And it was kind of strange because it's like, no, we're the ones that want to spend time with you kind of thing. but he was very excited. We got his kids in the car and all his grandkids in the car. And yeah, it was very cool. Very cool. I can guess what you're going to do in Spain. You're going to grow a moustache, aren't you?

8:32Yeah. It's got to be quite a bushy one. Are you capable? I've got about, what is it? I've got like, I've got a week to grow a moustache. I can tell you right now, these genetics do not grow a moustache in a week. But I tell you what this does show, Alex. It does show longevity and commitment from you to the team. I guess both ways, actually. It does. You know, you think about it, that Williams gave me my opportunity back in 2022 to get back onto the Formula One grid. I don't think a lot of teams would have taken that risk, you know, considering I did have a tough final year at Red Bull. And then throughout these, how many years is that now?

9:10I should know, but five years. Just being able to align. And obviously every year we've grown as a team, we've got better and better. Clearly this year has been a bit more of a struggle. But being honest with you, I really do enjoy racing for this team. The board members involved in Doralton and everyone over in the States and the UK. It's a very friendly place and very personable people. And I really enjoy their time. Do you think you are now the archetypal Williams driver? I think I'm most probably part of the transition of us going forwards in terms of, I spent one year without JV. So it was, you know, back then it was Yost Capito and we were just starting this turnover.

10:05I think that's really when, you know, Doriton were investing heavily within Williams. And each year we've gone through, you see the factory now, you see all the buildings and the technology coming through, the machines, whatever it may be. You see all the personnel coming through. We've increased size massively since when I first joined. It is really, really impressive. How different is the atmosphere at Williams now compared to 22? Do you feel there's an inner confidence now that there wasn't there? Yeah, I remember distinctively my first couple of weeks visiting the factory in 2022. And there were so many things where it was like you came from a time at Red Bull where there was clearly a very winning mentality going on.

10:50And then when you go to Williams, it wasn't the people within the factory that you felt weren't good enough. It was purely the culture, the confidence within the team that was almost like they had a very tough few years. And each year, I think at that point, they were going backwards. And there was that, you know, it's that feeling just like any single human would feel if they were, you know, feeling like they were going backwards. It was just a bit of a grind. And the team that I see now, what's funny is, you know, we are on the back foot this year. There's no secret. We are, at the moment, the ninth team.

11:29But we've been the ninth team in 2022, 2023. But that desire to be like, this is not where we belong. We don't belong here. We belong back to where we were last year, at least. This kind of P5 and the Constructors' Championship is there. There's determination to get back as quickly as we can. That's a completely different mindset, if you think about it, to what it was like when I was first there. But do you understand why you're where you are now? As in why we're on the back foot this year? Yeah. Yeah, I do. And if you actually look at it, I think we're in this position more for completely different reasons than we were a few years ago.

12:09We're in this position more because we were taking a lot of risks. We want to be thinking outside the box and thinking as far ahead as we can. And I think realistically, what ended up happening were we bit off more than we can chew. and so there were some areas within the factory within the team that we didn't foresee and we created bottlenecks procedural things that just especially when you change your regulation and there's so much to do it was a lot easier before when we were just refining the car and just making a car faster and faster this was this was a lot more you know deep into development phases we were late we pushed things right as late as we could and that just put us to where we are so it's not for the same reasons of we're just slow it was actually more the opposite of we were maybe too ambitious given everything you've just said and the recruitment drive that the team is on at the moment there's a recent signing that i think sounds really significant and that's pierce thin who who was in charge of the factory at mclaren um you know he he won the most recent constructors championship in Formula One and he's now joining Williams in a couple of months time that strikes me as quite a big shout from Williams given the reasons you've just stated for the problems this year.

13:27It is if you strip everything away and you just look at what do the top four teams do better than everyone else their turnover speeds the fact that they're bringing upgrades almost every race even if it's a small upgrade, how quickly they can convert CFD and wind tunnel production into physical parts. Their turnover is extremely quick. And it's one of the big things that separate midfield teams to the top teams. And we realized, you know, I think it's no secret, a few years ago we were back on the Excel spreadsheets and whatnot, and we were quite far behind and we've got this huge gap to bridge um bridge to gap gap to bridge we'll do both and and that's one of the areas that that we we've noticed uh consistently and and kind of touching on a new regulation change that's the one of the areas where we we saw ourselves most exposed so right and what about extricating yourselves from the hole at the start of the year we all know that the car was overweight i mean overweight in itself is a function of being late you know it's being slow because the one of the quickest things just gain back time and get back on target is to to not crash test to not refine to to just get parts in the car as quickly as you can and miss out that weight saving um opportunity phase of of the car build so it all kind of leads a lot of it to efficiency.

14:57But how much can you recover this year given the processes that you now have back in growth? I'm fairly confident we can get back on weight by, I don't want to say when, but I think we've got a clear plan. You could imagine that it's at one of the very top top priority lists of the car. And if you're on the weight limit, is the performance there? Is P5 in the Constructors' Championship still doable? We have a calculation of where we know our car would be if it was on the weight limit. That's not to say that everyone is on the weight limit. They aren't. Can you share that? No, but I would say that clearly the results aren't where they would be.

15:40We'd be much more in the points than we are now. The good thing is you've seen maybe the last few races an uptick in performance from the team. and you know there are some upgrades happening on the car but but a lot of that is is the weight um getting stripped out and how much of a setback was the ground hold moment that you had in montreal because i mean it actually cost a lot of money the amount of damage that was done that was an engine gearbox i've heard like a million dollars being floated around i mean that in the in the budget cap era that's budget cap area is is maybe quite overlooked in terms of didn't matter too much if you banged a wheel or two, lost a front wing or two previously.

16:19And now, especially with being the first year of this regulation change, how much money that takes to invest in the car, you don't want to be spending it on crashed parts. So yeah, it's not fun. I don't think insurance covers groundhogs. So yeah. Back to school starts now. Get long lasting battery life on the Dell XPS laptop powered by Series 3 Intel Core so you can work from anywhere. Now starting at$699 with exclusive student pricing starting at$599. And it's lightweight, portable and packed with enough processing power to make multitasking a breeze. So say goodbye to distractions and hello to more free time because you've finished your work faster.

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17:30Back to school starts now. Get long-lasting battery life on the Dell XPS laptop powered by Series 3 Intel Core so you can work from anywhere. Now starting at$699 with exclusive student pricing starting at$599. And it's lightweight, portable and packed with enough processing power to make multitasking a breeze. So say goodbye to distractions and hello to more free time because you've finished your work faster. Complete your setup with savings on select monitors and more must-have electronics and accessories. Limited time deals and free shipping on PCs and more await you at dell.com forward slash deals.

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18:22This episode is sponsored by Indeed. Building a great team is never easy. If you're a small business, hoping the right people see your job posting isn't the best growth strategy. When the pressure's on and you need the right hire, this is a job for sponsored jobs. Indeed, sponsored jobs gets you quality candidates when you need them most. Because when you're hiring, you don't just want more applicants, you want the right applicants. Sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed are 95 % more likely to report a hire than non-sponsored jobs. That's because it helps you reach candidates that meet your specific criteria, such as skills, certifications, or location from the word go, boosting your job post in search results so you can reach the people that help your business thrive.

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19:58We've discussed the team and how it's getting back on track. Let's discuss you now, Alex. The driver silly season is up and running. We've just had Charles Leclerc announcing a new contract at Ferrari. Where are you at with Williams? Do you want to stay? I mean, James Vowles has said he wants you and Carlos for the future. Are you on the same page? I would love to stay. I think that for me, I've been a part of this journey before JB, in fact. And I've been here feeling like maybe it's true or not, but I've been a contribution to part of the success of the team. And I want to see it through. I want to see where we get to.

20:47I feel like there's unfinished business where we are. And this year was actually tough in many ways, even just mentally, because you're seeing this forward momentum going through. And now we're not that we're slightly having to reset kind of where our trajectory curve is. But in a way, yes, you know, there's areas that we realize, OK, well, this is going to take a couple more years than we would like, let's say. and so you you know you as much as you you want to immediately get a pen to paper you do want to see where and how the team um evolve and i think for for me it's 100 as i said before i i love i love the board i love i love jv i think the team is in a great place so um i want to see this see this work james has said 2030 is when he wants to to see williams challenging for world championships first of all do you think that date is doable yeah i would have said you know we're previous to the end of last year my eyes were kind of you know 28 29 um 28 really it was kind of like i thought if we keep going we're that's it's not too long away i think from from this year it's it's it's kind of gone okay you know it's most likely more 2030 um i think that's realistic i I think one thing about JV is he is honest and he doesn't try to set unrealistic targets.

22:15I do think that 2030 is a... I haven't spoken to him about it, but I believe it's a good number yet. And he has said that you and Carlos is the best driver lineup in Formula One. You're now 18 months into that relationship. How are you rubbing along? Yeah, great. I think we are still in a very similar place to the first weekend we spent together. There's no difference in our openness. And most probably more than anything, we've realized we were very open before in terms of what do we need to do to get this team to go forwards. And then this year, being on that back foot, there's been even more focus.

22:52I'd say there's been a huge amount of driver input back to the factory. And yeah, just between us trying to understand how to make this car go faster. So I like the way that we have this partnership. I'm not sure it's that common across teams to have two drivers with experience that understand the picture of what the team needs or what team needs to get to go forwards. Not to say that young drivers are going to just focus on themselves, but it's nice that we can have these weekends. even for example FP1s where we can do completely different things across cars to focus on different philosophies and see if things can work out neither car really focusing on pure performance just trying to figure out what the window is of the car and then kind of come back together right I could imagine there are a lot of midfield teams that that wouldn't do that do you think that dynamic would change if you were fighting for for podiums and wins um what sort of personality yes I think it would, but we're not there yet.

23:55So that's a problem to have later on. And Carlos as a teammate, has he made you a better driver? Do you look at his data, his telemetry and think, okay, I'll try that? Yes, I do. I'd say that I look at it. I don't, I think he would say the same to me. There's nothing that I see that's, you know, you feel like you cannot do or whatever. We kind of look at each other. We bounce off each other. I think he's taken to these new regulations well as well. So it's been helpful for me to see his data. What does he do especially well in a racing car? I would say that his strongest asset is actually his feedback and his communication.

24:34It's actually the out-of-car work that he does that's very good. I think he speaks well. He has great insight. He has an engineering brain on him. I think that's really important. Are you quite similar? We are similar for sure. I think that we both attack or we go into a weekend and prepare for a weekend in a very similar way. Maybe that's also why we get on well. Well, beginning of next year, you'll be starting your 150th Grand Prix. Yeah. It seems quite a lot, doesn't it? I know. I always think of it like I'm 30 now. I turned 30 in between China and Japan. Your fourth decade. Wow. Yeah. A 30 is crazy.

25:24Yeah. Because if you, I think I'm way over the average age now. Yeah. You're an old boy now. Although Jackie Stewart would tell you, you are absolutely at your prime at 30 as a racing driver. And actually JV says the same thing, but I'm glad Checo and Valtteri joined the grid to get that average age up a bit. Lewis, stay around a bit longer. Yeah, otherwise it would be like... Fernando, we need you. Every Wednesday, every Wednesday. It's helped my ego. Yeah. Can we explore how you think you've changed as a driver over the last eight years? I think if I split it between the two, so if I go just purely driver, pure technique-wise, my, you call it default, my driver default is the same.

26:10So I drive the same way. I have the same technique, same style. are you faster now i i've noticed my weaknesses more so i know the corners that i need to work on there's obviously a consistent pattern that you kind of go through um i know the tires much better i know how to manage the tires in a race much much better i know when to push i think that's the biggest difference between when you start to where i am now is that balance of saving saving and then when you start picking up that pace and start going for it. On a technical level, I understand the cars better clearly and I pretty much know how to, and I know all the things we can do to the car.

26:52And then in terms of a personable level, I'd say there's still the racing side, which is mostly the area that I think I've become better at is being that team person, that point of contact of moving the team or explaining to the team what I needed from them, from the car. What do we need to go back to the factory and work on? What are these specific areas that we need to focus on? Having better communication, basically, and knowing who I need to speak to to get what I want from the car, from the team. And then there's the outside kind of non-racing side, but it still applies as me as a human. I'm more confident now, more confident and comfortable in my own skin as well.

27:34not trying to be someone I'm not and and more relaxed as well in in in weekends do you think you being thrust into that team leadership role you know when you had Logan Sargent when you had Nicholas Satifi as your teammate were you ready for that and it is that what helped create the person that you've just described um I think it definitely was a part of it I think it was more an element of maturity as well. I think that there's a big difference mentally that changes when you are driving to survive and then driving to not survive, basically. And the attitude is that self-confidence within you that's kind of like, I'm okay, I don't need, it's not all about me.

28:25And it's kind of what I was saying before around having that two experienced drivers in the midfield. And it's more about what do we need as a team to go forwards? How do we get away from these P12s and P13s? And how do we start moving into the points? And there's a, I guess, a human reaction towards I belong here and I don't need to prove myself. And so you do think far more big picture and that kind of narrow minded approach of in it for myself goes away. So that's possibly the biggest difference. So when you were finishing in the points in what, seven of the opening eight races last year, that was peak Alex?

29:07That was... It was peak Alex for sure in many ways. Things were clicking and you're just relaxed. I think there's an element of the car's goods. You're just in that rhythm. It's hard to explain, but there's none of this kind of like, I gotta do this. Even, it sounds really silly, but I mean, this is maybe going a little bit off subject, but you know how different it is to be able to go into Q1 and it doesn't have to be the perfect lap to get through. You can play around with your tools. You can play around with the front wing. You can play around with your outlap because it doesn't really matter.

29:45You're still going to go through. The mentality of I can't adjust too much and I need to make sure my outlap's perfect and it's a bit of a weird mentality but sometimes harder to take risks when you're on the back foot. when you know the car's not good enough for q2 so it is a shift in in many ways and i think it just it makes you more relaxed you know you've got a good car and do you think you would deal with a team like red bull differently now the alex the version of you now would deal with that opportunity differently now you for sure yeah yeah yeah i mean um like deal with hell i look at myself yeah yeah i look at myself back when i was in in red bull to where i am now and i think i'm I am very very different um still have the kind of my core is still the same but how I can deal with things and the biggest thing is get myself out of things you know if I am in a tight spot or whatever and things aren't clicking how do I get myself out of them that's the biggest thing when I was at Red Bull I with that maturity and and the lack of fundamental engineering knowledge it was hard to know why it was difficult what do you know now that you wish you had known in 2019 when you started in formula one it's so technically boring there are things you can do with the car like um things which i most probably didn't understand back then but the way you can set up the car and and play around with it there's a lot you can do basically and i I think that sometimes I was not giving the exact feedback that I should have been giving because back then it was just it's doing this, it's doing that.