Alex Albon: Career, Race Record and Williams Years

Alex Albon has raced in Formula One since 2019, rising from Toro Rosso to a Red Bull seat and then to a long spell at Williams. His two Formula One podiums both came in 2020, and his career combines a strong junior record with a run of midfield results in recent seasons.

Who is Alex Albon and where did he grow up?

Alex Albon was born Alexander Philippe Albon Ansusinha on 23 March 1996 in the City of Westminster, London. His father, Nigel Albon, raced in British touring cars and the Porsche Carrera Cup, and his mother Kankamol comes from Thailand. He grew up in Bures, Suffolk.

He grew up alongside a younger brother, Luca, and three sisters. Albon attended Ipswich School before leaving to pursue racing full time. Michael Schumacher and Valentino Rossi were the names he gave as inspirations when he was younger.

His uncle, Mark Albon, raced in one round of International Formula 3000. He holds both British and Thai nationality, and he competes under the Thai flag, a choice made for sponsorship reasons.

A karting champion who became a Red Bull podium finisher, then a steady midfield driver at Williams.

How did Albon progress through karting?

Albon started karting in 2005 at the age of eight and won the Hoddesdon Championship at Rye House Kart Circuit. He was signed to the Red Bull Junior Team in 2008 and won the CIK-FIA World Cup and European Championship in the KF3 class by 2010.

In 2006 he finished first in the cadet class at the Kartmasters British Grand Prix, and he won the Super 1 National Honda Cadet Championship that year before finishing second in 2007.

Between 2008 and 2010 he raced in the KF3 class, adding the Kartmasters British Grand Prix, the Formula Kart Stars Championship, the KF Winter Series and the Super 1 National KF3 Championship to his record. In 2011 he moved up to KF1, where he finished runner-up in the WSK Euro Series and at the CIK-FIA World Championship.

What were Albon's results in Formula Renault and Formula 3?

Albon moved into the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup in 2012 with EPIC Racing, but a difficult first year ended 38th of 49 without points. He improved to 16th of 36 with KTR in 2013 and then finished third in the 2014 championship with 117 points.

His 2013 season produced 22 points, one pole position and one fastest lap, and both of those top results came at the Red Bull Ring in Austria. In 2014 he failed to win any of the 14 races but took one pole at the Nurburgring, and he finished third in the standings.

Formula 3 followed in 2015 with Signature, where he finished seventh overall with 187 points. He took two poles at the Norisring and recorded five podiums in total, four of which were wins. That year he competed against future Formula One names including Antonio Giovinazzi, Charles Leclerc and George Russell.

After post-season testing with ART Grand Prix in December 2015, he raced for the team in the 2016 GP3 Series. Albon claimed four wins that year and finished as runner-up to his teammate, Charles Leclerc.

How did Albon perform in Formula 2?

Albon reached FIA Formula 2 in 2017 with ART and finished tenth in the championship in his first season, scoring 86 points. In 2018 he moved to DAMS, won four races and finished third behind George Russell and Lando Norris. His first F2 podium had come earlier in 2017 at the fifth round.

His 2017 rookie year began with sixth place in the Bahrain feature race, and he finished second in the Abu Dhabi sprint race at the season finale. In between, he broke a collarbone while mountain biking and missed the Baku round, because the over-the-shoulder seat belts used in Formula 2 meant he could not compete while the bone healed.

In 2018 he took pole for the Baku feature race and won it, the first win of his series career. He added poles at Barcelona and Monaco, and he finished second in the Barcelona sprint race behind Jack Aitken. An engine failure at Le Castellet and collisions in Monaco then cost him valuable points.

He recovered with a feature race win at Silverstone, a sprint win at the Hungaroring and another feature win at Sochi. A grid stall at Abu Dhabi ended his title chances, and he finished third in the championship behind two drivers who would also go on to race in Formula One.

Why did Albon join Toro Rosso in 2019?

Nissan e.dams ended Albon's Formula E contract on 26 November 2018, the same day Toro Rosso announced he would race for them alongside Daniil Kvyat in 2019. The move restored his link to Red Bull, which had ended seven years earlier.

Albon had been signed by Nissan e.dams alongside Sebastien Buemi for the 2018-19 Formula E season, but he was released before it began. Oliver Rowland, a former Formula 2 rival, took the seat instead.

Only one Thai driver had raced in Formula One before him, Prince Birabongse Bhanudej, in 1954. Albon qualified 13th for the Australian Grand Prix and finished 14th on his debut.

What happened in Albon's Toro Rosso debut season?

In 2019 Albon scored his first points with ninth in Bahrain, reached Q3 for the first time at Monaco and finished eighth there. His best qualifying result for Toro Rosso came at the British Grand Prix, where he started ninth, though he failed to score in the race.

A heavy practice crash at the Chinese Grand Prix forced him to start from the pit lane. He recovered to finish tenth and earned the Driver Of The Day award. Damage from contact with Antonio Giovinazzi at the Canadian Grand Prix led to his first retirement in Formula One.

At the German Grand Prix he started 16th and used changing weather to climb to sixth. At that stage of the season he had scored 16 points, compared with the 27 scored by teammate Daniil Kvyat.

What happened during Albon's time at Red Bull?

Albon replaced Pierre Gasly at Red Bull Racing from the 2019 Belgian Grand Prix and partnered Max Verstappen. His 2019 championship ended eighth on 92 points, and he was seventh in 2020 with 105 points, a season in which his two Formula One podiums arrived.

Red Bull said it would use the next nine races to judge him before choosing a partner for 2020. At Spa he started 17th after a power unit change and finished fifth, and he followed that with sixth places at Monza and Singapore. In Japan he finished fourth, a career-best at the time, after setting the same qualifying time as Verstappen.

The Brazilian Grand Prix ended badly when Lewis Hamilton hit him during an overtaking attempt while he was second on the penultimate lap, dropping him to 14th. He still finished the year with sixth at Abu Dhabi and was named Rookie of the Year at the FIA Prize Giving Ceremony.

Across nine races for Red Bull he scored 76 points, while Verstappen managed 97 over the same stretch. The 2020 season opened with an Austrian collision with Hamilton that sent him into the gravel. Honda later blamed an electrical failure, which ended that race, on the contact.

When did Albon take his first Formula One podium?

His first podium came at the 2020 Tuscan Grand Prix, where he overtook Daniel Ricciardo in the closing laps to take third. It was the first podium for a Thai Formula One driver.

At the Bahrain Grand Prix he finished second after Sergio Perez retired from third with an engine failure. That result made him the first Asian driver to score more than one Formula One podium. He had also led a race for the first time at the Turkish Grand Prix earlier in the year, finishing seventh.

He finished 2020 seventh in the championship with 105 points, while Verstappen scored 214 in the same season. He also finished fourth at Abu Dhabi, pressuring Lewis Hamilton in the closing stages.

Why was Albon dropped from Red Bull's race seat?

Red Bull gave Sergio Perez the race seat for 2021, and Albon became a test and reserve driver. He said it hurt, but he hoped to return to a race seat for 2022. He did so with Williams, where he has raced ever since.

From the 2021 Turkish Grand Prix he also coached AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda. While in the reserve role he also raced in DTM, as described below.

That year he took part in 14 of the 16 rounds of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters for AF Corse, alongside Liam Lawson, with backing from Red Bull and AlphaTauri. Nick Cassidy took over for the final two races at the Norisring.

On 22 August 2021 he won his maiden DTM race at the Nurburgring, becoming the first Thai driver to win a DTM race.

How has Albon fared at Williams?

Albon joined Williams for 2022 to replace George Russell and has remained with the team since. He reached seventh at the 2023 Canadian Grand Prix, and in 2025 he ended eighth overall on 73 points, ahead of his teammate.

In his first race for Williams, at Bahrain, he out-qualified Nicholas Latifi and finished 13th. He scored his first Williams point with tenth at the Australian Grand Prix after starting last, and ninth at the Miami Grand Prix added another. At the British Grand Prix he was hit from behind by Sebastian Vettel in an opening-lap crash, but he was not seriously hurt.

He reached Q3 for the first time with Williams at the Belgian Grand Prix, starting ninth and finishing tenth. He missed the Italian Grand Prix after appendicitis and was replaced by Nyck de Vries. Williams later said he had suffered anaesthetic-related respiratory failure after surgery but was recovering well. He ended 2022 19th in the championship with four points, which accounted for half of the team's total.

Williams kept him on a multi-year contract for 2023, partnering Logan Sargeant, and that deal ended his Red Bull affiliation. He still described a close relationship with the team, and a logo from a wine brand founded by Red Bull co-owner Chalerm Yoovidhya appears on his race helmet.

The 2023 season brought his seventh at Canada, then an eighth at the British Grand Prix ahead of both Ferraris, and a fourth place on the grid at Zandvoort before finishing eighth. He ended 13th in the championship with 27 points, while Sargeant scored one, and Williams took seventh in the constructors' standings.

Franco Colapinto replaced Sargeant as his teammate from the Italian Grand Prix in 2024. At the Australian Grand Prix, Albon crashed in first practice and Williams withdrew Sargeant so that he could use the one remaining car. He finished 11th. At Monaco he scored ninth, which were Williams' first points of the season.

Ninth at Monza and seventh at Baku, where a crash between Perez and Carlos Sainz helped him, gave Williams the edge over Alpine in the constructors' standings. He did not start the Sao Paulo race after a heavy crash in qualifying, and he finished the year 16th with 12 points.

From 2025 he partnered Carlos Sainz Jr. His season opened with fifth at a rain-affected Australian Grand Prix after qualifying sixth. He scored ten points in each of his fifth-place finishes at Miami and Emilia-Romagna. He finished the year eighth with 73 points, ahead of Sainz, and his final points came with sixth in the Austin sprint race.

The 2026 season brought new power unit and chassis regulations. Albon opened with twelfth in Australia and did not start in China because of a hydraulics issue. He scored his first point of the year with tenth at Miami, retired in Canada after a collision with Oscar Piastri, and took eighth at Monaco for four more points. At Barcelona he was not classified after completing less than 90% of the race distance.

He retired at Silverstone after a first-lap collision with Ollie Bearman. Following the summer break, he finished 16th in the Dutch sprint but retired from the main race after a collision with Sainz.

What does Albon's Formula One record look like season by season?

The figures show two peaks. The first came at Red Bull in 2020, with seventh place and both of his podiums. The second came at Williams in 2025, when his 73 points were his highest total with the team. As of the 2026 Singapore Grand Prix he had two podiums and one fastest lap in Formula One.

What is Albon's background and public profile?

He holds dual British and Thai nationality, and his entries carry the Thai flag for sponsorship reasons. He is a childhood friend of fellow Formula One driver George Russell, and the two raced together from their junior karting days. He works with performance coach and physiotherapist Patrick Harding.

He has spoken publicly about the mental pressure of Formula One. At Red Bull he described feeling mentally worn down by the pressure and criticism, and he later turned to a psychologist to support his wellbeing and performance. Harding worked with him at both Red Bull and Williams.

Albon's place in Thai motorsport

Albon's first Formula One podium made him the first Thai driver to finish on the podium, and his second made him the first Asian driver with more than one. Before him, the only Thai driver in Formula One was Prince Birabongse Bhanudej, who raced in 1954.

Williams has him under contract until at least the end of the 2027 season, so his record is still being written. His results have ranged from fifth-place finishes in 2025 to several retirements in 2026.