Dave Robson talks about Alexander Albon adjusting to Williams life in a perfect way and similarities with George Russell that they found.
Having lost Russell to Mercedes, Williams were fortunate to find a like-for-like replacement in Albon who made his F1 return after a year’s gap. His experience at AlphaTauri and Red Bull is certainly coming handy as the Thai racer has led the team nicely.
While Nicholas Latifi has his struggles, Albon has filled in seamlessly and is doing what Russell used to do. His friendly nature sits well with Williams and the similarities with the Brit has certainly helped them to improve from 2021 to 2022.
“He’s obviously had a very positive input on the team,” said Robson. “It was a shame to lose George and all of the input that he’d had but Alex has jumped in, he’s got experience of what quick cars feel like and he’s fitted in very well. And he strikes that right balance as well, I think, between understanding what’s possible, but at the same time pushing and motivating everybody.
“So he’s a great influence and he works hard and really pushes us along. In terms of what they’re trying to achieve, then yes, of course, they’re very similar, similarly motivated and they want to achieve the same thing. In terms of their personality traits, then they’re quite different.
“And Alex, I think can come across as being very quiet and mild mannered, and very friendly. And he is, but at the same time he is pushing hard. So I think the way their enthusiasm manifests itself is a little bit different and inevitably, that takes a little bit of time to get used to and as we understand each other.
“But yeah, there’s enough similarities there that Alex can push us along and pick up where George left off,” summed up Robson. While there is praise for the Thai, Williams is also looking at finding a teammate in 2023 who could support him and the team going forward as Latifi won’t renew his contract beyond 2022.
“We need someone who will push Alex along,” said Robson. “And we’ll be fighting with him every race. Ideally someone who is after similar traits from the car but we’ll see where we go but yeah, all we want to do is have two competitive cars pushing each other into Q2, Q3 and beyond.”
