Alex Albon isn’t chasing validation; he’s busy scoring it. Williams’ lead man has quietly hauled 54 of the team’s 70 points so far in 2025, a surge that would put him fifth in the Constructors’ all by himself. With Carlos Sainz still finding his feet after swapping red for blue, Williams holds an 18-point cushion over Aston Martin with 10 race weekends to go.
Pre-season chatter had Sainz tipped to set the tone at Grove after his strong finish to 2024. Instead, it’s Albon who’s been the metronome — banking repeat top-fives and keeping Williams best of the rest behind the front quartet.
Asked if outpacing a highly rated teammate felt like vindication, Albon waved it off. For him, the story isn’t a breakthrough so much as steady escalation. He talks about his Williams stint as a build: lessons from the Red Bull years, a reset in 2022, then incremental gains each season. The key difference now? A car that behaves.
Last year’s FW46 could bite; this year’s machine is predictable enough to lean on. Fewer surprises, fewer costly snaps, and a driver free to live at the limit. That’s where Albon’s consistency has come from — confidence feeding performance, performance feeding confidence. It reads less like a hot streak and more like a platform.
Inside the garage, James Vowles sees the same progression. The team principal describes a driver who’s scaled up annually under his watch — “immensely quick,” yes, but more importantly, relentlessly tidy. The praise is pointed: Vowles struggles to find a session where Albon hasn’t delivered what’s required, even when the weekend throws a curveball.
And then there’s the Max question. The Williams boss doesn’t suggest Albon is faster now than he was at Red Bull; rather, he says Albon today wouldn’t be steamrollered in the same way. Stronger mentally, more resilient, better at accessing his peak on demand. It’s less about outright lap time and more about how often he can reach it.
Sainz’s 16-point tally will draw headlines, but context matters. New team, new power unit, very different car philosophy, and a teammate fully dialed into the FW47. The Spaniard’s adaptation curve may yet bend upward — and Williams will need it — but Albon’s form has given the team breathing room it couldn’t count on a year ago.
If this is Williams’ new normal, it’s built on the simplest foundation in racing: give your driver a car he trusts, and he’ll do the rest. Albon’s doing exactly that — and for once, he’s letting everyone else argue about what it means.
