Alex Albon looks to the opportunities Williams will have in F1 2025. With the field more competitive and every small change having a large impact, he hopes Williams will take a step forward from 2024. They finished a very disappointing P9.
With a new title sponsor, a strong team principal and a strong driver line-up, Williams wants to move forward. Consistently fighting for Q3 and points this year would be a start.
Since James Vowles joined the Grove-based team, they have begun fixing fundamental issues that the team were struggling with, and although it is a slow process, they have taken steps forward.
Alex Albon, who has been with the team since 2022, was optimistic about his hopes for the team.
“I’d like to be fighting up at the top half of that midfield fight. We’ll see how big of a midfield fight there is this year. I think it’s going to be closer even to the top teams, I’m hoping.”
He noted that 2024 had been a difficult season for the team. Overhauling many procedures and systems that the team had that weren’t working meant they brought an overweight car to Bahrain. It was only just made on time, too.
The Thai noted that with these areas fixed, Williams will find themselves in a much stronger position at the start of 2025.
“I think that last year, if you just look at where we were in terms of timing and being late and being overweight. These kinds of areas were fundamental to be fixed for this year. And I feel like already, we’ve started in a much better position.”
New regulations
However, though Williams would like a stronger 2025, a lot of the focus is already on 2026. With a complete overhaul of the regulations coming, it allows the Grove team to start afresh and try to move themselves into a genuinely competitive position for a start.
James Vowles has been open about infrastructure changes coming in 2025 that will prepare the team for the coming year, but Albon stayed realistic with his expectations on when these changes will pay off.
“I don’t think a lot of them will be optimised by 2026. So I think that being totally realistic, it’s beyond then. That’s not to say I don’t think we should be making a good step next year.”
The right decision
The 28-year-ole invested in the future of Williams early when he joined them in 2022. For the entirety of his tenure with the team, he has resided at the back of the field.
However, the momentum is with Williams for the coming years and Albon is happy that others are starting to see the vision he saw when he joined.
“I would say that it’s great to see, people like Atlassian, Carlos joining. People from other teams are joining as well. It’s not like it’s a settling feeling, thinking that I’ve made the right choice. But it’s more that it’s good to have great people on board.
“I feel like that we are attracting great talent, whether it’s outside of the driver market, but also within the people at Grove.
“It just feels like I’ve made the decision because I believed in it and everyone else’s as well, kind of thing.”
It is hard to know how long it will take before people see the tangible effects of the decisions being made behind the scenes at Williams. However, it does seem they are on an upward trajectory.
