Albon: There are signs that Williams is becoming a top team.

      Alex Albon’s season was uneven – then again, the same could be said of Carlos Sainz, except that Williams’ teammates were able to shine at different stages of the championship. The Spaniard found his way with the car closer to autumn and even reached the podium a couple of times, while Albon was more assured in the first third of the season.

      Alex is most proud of how he performed at the Australian round, which opened the championship: in Melbourne he started sixth and finished fifth in a race that took place in very difficult, changeable weather conditions.

      “I’d say I’m proud of the first race of the year,” the championship’s official website quotes Albon as saying. “In many ways it’s an obvious choice, but it was my best result with the Williams team. We were all surprised that it happened already at the first round of the season – it just seems to me that that allowed us to have such a great first part of the championship. I remember that during the race I was running in the top five and thought it was unlikely that would happen again. In the end we repeated those results a few more times.”

      Williams finished the season fifth in the Constructors’ Championship with 137 points, whereas in the whole of 2024 the British team scored only 17 points. Alex believes this is primarily down to James Vowles, who took charge of Williams in 2023:

      “I think credit should be given to James for preserving the culture of this team. It feels like Williams is now characterised by a kind of openness, a desire to learn and to achieve continuous improvement. In addition, the team doesn’t have an inflated sense of itself, and I think that’s an important point too. Everyone has a positive mindset, the team is full of energy, and that helps to move things forward.”

      Although Albon’s form in the second part of the season was far from brilliant, it did not spoil his impressions of the team’s work in 2025: “I still think the year was largely successful. But it didn’t happen overnight – it took several years of work to finish fifth in the Constructors’ Championship, and only now are we seeing the first signs that Williams is becoming a top team. There are many years ahead. I think moving up from 10th to 5th in the team standings is easier than from 5th to 1st, but we are striving to reach that level of results.”