F1 2025 recap: Alex Albon's "best season yet" at much-improved Williams

The 2025 Formula 1 season rewarded Alex Albon for the immense patience he has displayed ever since joining Williams in 2022, when it was the worst team in the championship. Even in the years which followed, the British outfit only gradually improved but Albon continued to be its beacon of light, who always maximised his machinery without putting up a fuss.

His recovery drive at the 2022 Australian Grand Prix is the performance which immediately comes to mind. 

What the Thai-Briton achieved was even more remarkable considering who was in the sister car, whether it be Nicholas Latifi or Logan Sargeant, it doesn’t matter as neither were good enough for F1. But that all changed this year when Williams signed grand prix winner Carlos Sainz from Ferrari, which served as the first test for how much Albon had actually improved since his disastrous 2020 at Red Bull.

It was a test Albon passed with flying colours though, coming straight out of the blocks with points in seven of the opening eight rounds. Such form was of course helped by Williams producing a much better car this year, one that actually wasn’t overweight when the season started, but it wasn’t all down to that because Sainz was getting beat by his team-mate.

It’s not like the Spaniard was doing terribly either, he’d scored in five of the first eight grands prix, it’s just that Albon was in the form of his life and team boss James Vowles reckons being “pushed” by the sister car was a key reason for it.

But as is the case with life in the midfield, there are always peaks and troughs: three consecutive DNFs from Spain to Austria ended Albon’s form. He managed to bounce back, however, by scoring points in four of the five races either side of the summer break thanks to Williams fixing the cooling problems that plagued its driver.

Carlos Sainz, Williams, Alexander Albon, Williams, James Vowles, Team Principal, Williams

Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images

Albon was therefore on the up, still regularly beating his team-mate and scoring points at so much of a canter that he was challenging Mercedes man Andrea Kimi Antonelli for seventh in the championship. 

Then came the season-ending flyaways though, where he suffered a mysterious loss of form in qualifying while Sainz’s trajectory went the opposite way. In Baku the ex-Ferrari man scored Williams its first podium since George Russell at Spa 2021 and then its second at Qatar, all while Albon failed to score any points in the last eight grands prix - which he put down as nothing more than a “bad run”.

So it wasn’t too much of a concern for Williams, who claimed its best championship finish since 2017 with fifth. There’s a lot of positive things currently happening at Williams and one of them is Albon, who reckons 2025 was his “best season yet” despite zero podiums.

“I haven't changed so much my application into this year,” he added, having finished eighth and nine points above Sainz in the standings. “But the car and what the guys and girls have done at the factory - made a huge step this year. I've been with this team for four years now, and this has been clearly the biggest step out of the four years from year to year.

“It's been enjoyable, been fun to be able to race against some of the top teams in some certain tracks. Towards the end of the year, not ideal, but generally pace has been strong.”