It was obvious before the 2025 season began that Alexander Albon was about to face his toughest challenge against a team mate since Red Bull paired him with Max Verstappen five years earlier.

Alexander Albon

Best Worst
GP start 5 19
GP finish 5 (x3) 15
Points 54

But Albon has measured up well against the more experienced Carlos Sainz Jnr and delivered each of Williams’ four best results so far.

It began with a superb drive in the damp Australian Grand Prix, aided by his team mate’s input to his strategy, following Sainz’s first-lap crash. From sixth on the grid Albon delivered his first of three fifth-place finishes.

He followed that up with seventh in China, where he even led briefly, and ninth in Japan. His points run paused in Bahrain, due only partly to the stewards’ oversight in qualifying which prevented him taking part in Q2 when he should have done.

There were no points in the sprint race at Miami, either, though there would have been had Albon not collected a penalty for a Safety Car infringement. He resumed his points-scoring run the following day, however.

Albon repeated Williams’ best result so far at the next two rounds with a pair of fifth places. This came despite him clipping Sainz at the start in Miami, damaging his team mate’s floor. In Imola he battled the Ferrari drivers for another fifth-place finish.

But after qualifying well enough in Monaco to take ninth in the race, Albon’s luck deserted him. He failed to finish the next three races with technical problems. Although more points were unlikely to follow in Spain as he collided with Nico Hulkenberg early on, Albon was running well inside the top 10 before trouble struck in Austria.

By now Williams were under greater pressure from rivals who had put more effort into upgrading their 2025 cars. Nonetheless he took eighth on home ground at Silverstone, passing Fernando Alonso on the final lap, and starred again at Spa with an excellent run to sixth in the rain, repelling Lewis Hamilton over the final laps.

Williams looks likely to face a tougher time in the second half of the season, as Albon’s struggle to 15th in Hungary indicated. However they have built up a substantial points buffer over the opening races, thanks in no small part to Albon’s efforts, which have left him just 10 points behind Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s works Mercedes in the drivers’ standings.

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