Jost Capito is hopeful that the relationship of Alexander Albon can be moulded in a similar way with Williams F1 Team, just like how it did with George Russell.
While Albon still has his Red Bull connections, Capito is hopeful that his relation with Williams is moulded in a similar way as it did with Russell. He reckons the ups and downs for the Thai racer is useful at the young age, because it helps in improvements.
“At the moment I don’t see why not and it would be nice if it turns out like this but in racing you never know,” said Capito to media including FormulaRapida.net. “Lots of things can happen but that was part of our choice. Somebody we can build the team with and already still has experience with a young age, and I think he has fantastic experience.
“He had his ups and his downs and its made him very mature as a driver and he is from an age where he still has the best to come which was a major decision point,” summed up Capito, who further added that hiring him was not just looking at one angle, but his whole career – which includes the junior categories and the time spent in F1.
“He’s done a great job,” said Capito. “Being the team mate of Max is something very difficult, as much as difficult to be the team mate of Hamilton. And you see it in McLaren how difficult it is for Danny to come into a new car as well. So I think it’s very difficult to judge somebody just on one season.
“You have to see the whole career and what he has done. And there are always different circumstances. You can’t just judge in a single race results. So when I look at the whole career of Alex, what he has done and how he works and his character and also the comments of people having worked with him, we came to the conclusion that he is that he’s the right guy for us for next year,” summed up Capito.
Looking at the future, it is not yet certain when Albon starts his journey with Williams, though. For 2021, he is to continue with his DTM programme and also the reserve work with Red Bull. When he joins the Grove-based outfit is still to be discussed.
“We will see and this is based on the discussion I will have with Christian with what we can do,” said Capito when asked by FormulaRapida.net. “At the moment we signed a contract for next year and for sure he will fulfill all his duties he has contractually for this year there’s no doubt and we won’t ask him or push him out of any of his duties. He is a Red Bull driver this year and he will stay a Red Bull driver this year.”
Speaking more on losing Russell and hiring Albon, Williams Head of Vehicle Performance, Dave Robson added his bits too. He feels it is a big loss indeed, but he reckons Nicholas Latifi is getting into that mould and the Thai’s hiring only adds to that balance.
“To losing George, yeah, we are losing a lot of talent, we are losing kind of current – sort of – spearhead of what we do at the track, so that will take some replacing but Nicky already started to get in and drop into that kind of role and pick some of that, which is good, all that experience which he gets really helps for that,” said Robson.
“As we touched on, bringing Alex in, and his experience from Red Bull, hopefully will be really good as well. So, we are all sad a bit to see George leaving but on the other hand, kind of, are excited for him and proud of what we have done to get to that position.”
Here’s Jost Capito on whole of Alexander Albon hiring
Here’s Williams on helmet camera