Alex Albon rubbishes ideas of a return to Red Bull, commits himself to Williams for the long run

Albon has been a star performer lately, and has been garnering praise from his old Red Bull boss.

Alex Albon and Christian Horner (Credits: The Telegraph and The Independent)

Thai-British driver Alex Albon was dropped by Red Bull at the end of 2020 and later recruited to Williams in 2022. He has been excelling in his new surroundings. His exceptional performance in Montreal during his last outing, where he finished in P7 despite Williams being considered one of the slower cars on the grid, garnered praise from the entire paddock, including his former boss Christian Horner.

Alex Albon expressed his happiness regarding Red Bull boss Christian Horner’s satisfaction with his accomplishments. However, speaking to Autosport, Albon has made it clear that he plans to remain with the British team long, indicating his intention to stay committed to the team rather than possibly return to Red Bull.

He said, “Christian is always messaging me, telling me good job and all this kind of thing. It’s always nice to have that relationship with an old team principal boss, I guess you could say. It was a great weekend for us [in Canada] and obviously nice of Christian to say that,” appreciative of the fact that his old boss Christian Horner was keeping in touch with him.

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“Truthfully, I think you see it already now, where my main focus is with this team. You can see this isn’t a short-term situation. I am here for the long run. And I’m really enjoying working with the team, being where I am. I do feel like we are on a journey. I do want to continue this journey. Let’s see how these next few years unfold, but for now, I am very happy where I am,” Albon added.

Alex Albon is in a perfect place mentally at Williams

While Alex Albon may not be contending for victories and podium finishes as he did during his tenure at Red Bull, he has expressed that he currently finds more enjoyment in competitive racing. Furthermore, he has mentioned feeling much happier and more content in his current mental state.

He compared the environments at Red Bull and Williams, including speaking about how he has matured between his stints with each team. Albon feels he is much more experienced now. He said he is in the best form of his life, as he displayed in Montreal to complete a 57-lap stint on hard tires to bring home P7.

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Albon said, “I’d say I am in a good place mentally, that’s for sure. I definitely feel like I’m playing an important role in Williams. I can’t speak for the other drivers [at the team] but the time I had at Red Bull was, at least internally in my eyes, well managed. It was quite a normal race team in that sense. It was just more externally and with lack of experience, and not just on the driving side, but also in how to cope with the general circus of F1, I struggled a little bit.“