The 2025 F1 season marks Alex Albon’s sixth season in the sport and his fourth with Williams Racing. It is his strongest season with the team thus far, the Thai driver scoring more points in 2025 than his entire campaign with Williams in the 2022 to 2024 seasons. After only 12 races, Albon is 8th in the championship standings with a total of 46 points and 8 top 10 appearances. Albon’s 2025 season has shown promising results backed by strong performances. However, there has also been a few frustrating near misses.
Albon has suffered from three DNFs thus far in the 2025 F1 season. The Williams Racing driver was forced to retire early in Spain, Canada and Austria. cooling issues with the FW47 being the cause of two of out the three DNFs. Despite the questionable reliability of the FW47, he continues to extract pure pace out of the car and deliver weekend after weekend.
Strong season start
Albon kicked off the 2025 F1 season on a high, securing a P5 finish during the season opener at the 2025 Australian GP. It was a weekend to remember for Albon as that marked his best finish with the team since he joined in 2022. Many would considered it a chaotic race as it began with an aborted start with a 15-minute delay. The 2025 Australian GP had three safety car restarts, with multiple incidents occurring during its run. This was only worsened by the treacherous rain, making the track slippery and windy.
Despite the challenging conditions, Albon performed a masterclass in the rain. He put on a valiant effort of defense against Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli during his final laps but the Italian rookie slipped right past him.
Albon would go on to match that P5 finish later on in the season during the 2025 Imola GP.
A triple-header to forget
The Spain-Canada-Austria triple header was definitely one to forget for Albon as all three weekends ended up with DNFs. Making it his worse performance of the 2025 F1 season thus far. He was not to blame, however.
After a consistent top 10 finish streak after Bahrain, Albon found himself retiring early from the Spanish GP. This comes after the Thai driver made contact with Liam Lawson. He had dropped to the back after pitting early for a replacement front wing. Albon then made contact with the Kiwi as those two fought for position across a number of laps. Following the second broken front wing, Williams made the decision to retire the car after he had served his 10-second time penalty. It was issued for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
Albon’s next two DNFs came as a result of mechanical problems of the FW47. Albon’s time in Canada ended amid a battle with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly when power unit misfires halted his attack. While in Austria, the issue with Albon’s car from Canada seemed to continue which led to the team retiring the car to prevent further damage.
The triple header ending in three DNFs caused Albon to highlight and stress the needs for upgrades to the FW47. The FW47’s reliability was questioned and scrutinised not only by Albon but his teammate Carlos Sainz too. Both drivers having missed out on many valuable championship points due to their retirements. However, Williams seems to be on the right track following Silverstone as it allowed Albon to once again finish in points at P8.
Leading the team with confidence
The 2025 F1 season will definitely be considered Williams Racing best season up to date. The Grove outlet currently stands at P5 in the constructor’s championship with a total of 59 points. Scoring more points as a team in the past 12 races than the past 3 seasons combined. Albon contributed the most to the team’s ranking in the 2025 F1 season, scoring 46 out of the 59 points. Leading the team for the third season in row.
Against his teammate, Carlos Sainz who is still adapting and learning the ropes in his new team, Albon outperformed the Spaniard easily. The Thai driver now 33 points ahead of his teammate even with the three DNFs. In terms of Race Qualifying, Albon has out qualified Sainz 7-5 and in both Sprint Qualifying thus far.
Factoring in the trust and communication between Albon and Williams that has been built over the years, it is to no surprise that Albon is the leading driver of the team coming into the 2025 F1 season. However, Albon has shown great improvement in terms of race pace since the start of his run with Williams. He continues to deliver consistently strong finishes when he isn’t battling the car.
As we approach the second half of the season, can Williams deliver the reliable and fast car that Albon needs to continue performing?
