Though he claimed points for the third time this season, Williams Racing driver Alex Albon described the 2025 F1 Japanese GP as “boring”.
Speaking in the print media zone after the race, the British-Thai driver joked that his feisty radio messages had been broadcast to spice up an otherwise dull race.
“I think it was a boring race, so they kept using my radio messages.”
While many have commented on Albon’s messages to the team, with some fans and commentators criticising him for his harshness, Albon indicated that his messages had addressed serious issues that had plagued his performance throughout the race.
Shift settings a major challenge during the race
In one explicit message to his team, a frustrated Albon claimed, “These shifts are so bad. What have you done to them? It’s been shit at the start, it’s being shit now.”
While speaking after the race, the Thai explained that his team had been experimenting with the shift settings throughout the weekend. Through these experiments, they had found something that Albon had been comfortable with in Saturday’s Qualifying. Unfortunately, Albon could not carry that comfort into the race.
“Shift settings, we’ve been experimenting with shift settings all weekend, and we landed on something we were quite happy with.
“I think in the end it actually felt better in qualifying and didn’t feel that good in the race, so we reverted.”
Albon disagreed with Williams’ strategy calls
Albon also disagreed with some strategy decisions made by Williams during the race. In particular, he disagreed with the team’s decision to have him defend against Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, despite his race not being with the eventual Japanese GP winner. This decision, Albon believes, cost him time in his race against Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar.
“In terms of strategy, I didn’t feel like we needed to lose time behind Max because he overtook us. So we lost about a second and a half to Isack in that process, and then we boxed immediately after he overtook me.”
While frustrated with the team’s decision, Albon plans to review the matter with his team, as he understands that there could have been other factors at play that he had not been aware of.
“I’m sure they’ll show me why. Maybe I would have come out behind another car but in that moment, it felt like we wasted a second and a half.”
However, Albon also admitted that driving the FW47 around the Suzuka Circuit had been challenging. He added that he was pleased to take points from the 2025 F1 Japanese GP.
“But, saying that, I think the car didn’t feel that easy to drive this weekend. I think the wind and some of the corners weren’t playing to our favour. I think on Friday [with] the car, the wind suited us more and it flipped 180 degrees on Sunday.
“But we still scored points and that just shows you, even on out days that we’re not that optimal, we’re able to still score some points. So yeah, very happy.”
Albon always focused on “racing the car in front”
Williams’ approach to racing Verstappen and Hadjar resulted in an angry Albon exclaiming, “You guys make absolutely no sense,” over the radio during the Japanese GP race. While Williams reassured Albon that their strategy had been to cover off Haas’ Ollie Bearman, Albon admitted that, in the moment, he had struggled to conceptualise the team’s decision.
He explained that he focused on “racing the car in front” rather than the cars behind, and believes that pitting on the same lap as Bearman or on the lap before would have prevented any issues.
“Obviously, if we could have pitted the same lap as Ollie, and pitted the lap before, we wouldn’t have had the issue at all.
“It was more because we were… I guess in my head, I’m always racing the car in front, not the car behind.
“I don’t want to lose time to Isack, and I think after the pitstop he was about five and a half seconds in front, six seconds in front.”
Albon was pleased to have closed the gap to Hadjar, ultimately finishing about three and a half seconds behind him. However, he admitted he did not believe he could have overtaken the Racing Bulls rookie to take P8.
“We got it back to three and a half, but we just lost out. I don’t think Isack was possible to overtake this today. But yeah, we’re trying to get P8.”
Albon “very happy” to take points amidst limitations of FW47
Despite his disagreement with the strategy used, Albon stated that, overall, he was “very happy” to finish P9 at the 2025 F1 Japanese GP, especially given the challenges that he had faced throughout the race.
“Very happy. Very happy,” he assured when asked for his overall thoughts on the race.
“Like I said, it wasn’t easy out there, and I felt like we were quite limited in terms of the balance of our car. High speed, low speed, we were on the extremes of two different balances and two different speeds of corners. So to be able to get there [to P9], I’m happy.”
