Alexander Albon is having what is perhaps his best Formula 1 season to date in 2025 – team boss James Vowles explains why he is doing so well this year
Looking at the internal battles within the ten Formula 1 teams, the standings at Williams at the 2025 summer break are perhaps the biggest surprise. Alexander Albon has scored more than three times as many points as his teammate Carlos Sainz.
Some experts had expected the newcomer, who won four races for Ferrari, to “demystify” Albon after he had mostly had significantly weaker teammates at Williams in recent years.
The fact is, however, that Albon currently has a clear lead with 54:16 championship points. Team boss James Vowles praises: “In 2023, Alex took a big step forward and then continued to improve every year. That’s my impression of him. He has improved every year.”
The 29-year-old has “always been incredibly fast,” according to Vowles. But since joining Williams in 2022, he now has a competitive car “for the first time” at the traditional team, in which he can show what he is capable of, emphasizes the team boss.
Albon has made almost no mistakes this year, and Vowles praises him for being able to recall hardly any races “where he didn’t deliver what was asked of him.” “And even when something goes wrong, he’s so incredibly strong mentally that he can deal with it, come back the next day, and want more.”
It is precisely this mental strength that has made Albon a much better driver today, according to Vowles, who explains in this context: “If you were to pit him against Max [Verstappen] today, he would be a completely different driver than before.”
In 2019 and 2020, Albon drove alongside Verstappen for Red Bull in his first two Formula 1 seasons, but hardly saw any action against the Dutchman during that time. As a result, he lost his seat for the 2021 season and was replaced by Sergio Perez.
After a year on the Red Bull bench, he moved to Williams in 2022, where Albon gave his career new momentum. He is currently eighth in the drivers’ championship, his best result to date being seventh in the 2020 season, his only full year with Red Bull.
Vowles believes that Albon is “probably not” much faster today than he was back then. Rather, he is now able to reach his personal peak performance much more often than before. As a result, he is proving to be a much tougher opponent for Carlos Sainz than many experts had expected before the season.