Alex Albon Makes A Return To F1 With Williams Replacing George Russell

Alex Albon is back in F1 as now he has signed a one-year contract with the Williams F1 team which will be losing its star driver George Russell at the end of the year when he joins Lewis Hamilton at Williams. Albon who partnered with Max Verstappen in 2019 and 2020 lost his seat at Red Bull to Sergio Perez and was relegated to being Red Bull's reserve driver and was most recently driving in DTM. Albon will be partnering Nicholas Latifi who has impressed this season. 

Also Read: George Russell joins Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes 

"I am really excited and looking forward to returning to a Formula 1 race seat in 2022. When you take a year out of F1 it's never certain you will make a return so I'm extremely thankful to Red Bull and Williams for believing in me and helping me on my journey back to the grid. It's also been great to see all the progress Williams have been making as a team this year and I look forward to helping them continue that journey in 2022. My focus now returns to my test & reserve driver role at Red Bull and helping the team fight for this year's World Championship," said Albon. 

I can't tell you how good it feels to say.. I'm joining @WilliamsRacing for 2022!! The most sincere thank you to Jost and everyone at Williams for trusting me with this opportunity and of course @redbullracing especially Christian and Dr. Marko for making this possible. pic.twitter.com/c0NhSQLd0L

— Alex Albon (@alex_albon) September 8, 2021

"It is fantastic to be able to confirm our driver line-up for 2022 and I am delighted to be welcoming Alex to the team, along with confirming our continued relationship with Nicholas into next year. We are extremely excited by our new line-up, with both drivers bringing a great blend of youth and experience that will not only be a great fit for the team but also help us take the next step in our journey. Alex is one of the most exciting young talents in motorsport, yet comes with a large amount of F1 experience from his time at Red Bull. His multiple podium finishes highlight his speed as a driver, and we know he will immediately feel at home with the team at Grove," said Jost Capito, the Williams CEO and team principal. 

Alex Albon is a highly rated driver and was the no.1 choice for Capito the replace Russell 
Photo Credit: AFP

Albon is considered to be one of the best talents to have emerged in F1 in the last couple of years, however, after being elevated to the Red Bull team from AlphaTauri, he was never able to come close enough to Max Verstappen in terms of performance and was reportedly unable to handle the peaky Red Bull machinery. He was never put back to AlphaTauri as the Red Bull management rated Albon higher than Pierre Gasly and that's why the team has looked externally to get Albon a seat in the Williams team which is traditionally close to their arch-rivals, Mercedes.