Why Williams doesn’t “need to take silly risks” anymore

“Very confident.” That’s the way Williams racer Alex Albon described his fourth Formula 1 season with the team at the halfway point. The ex-Red Bull driver has already amassed more points in 2025 than his last three years with the Grove-based team combined and this, he says, is changing the way Williams goes racing.  

The historic British team has undergone a seismic change in recent seasons. From the arrival of new owners to the departure of the Williams family after almost 50 years at the helm, the changes at the team have coincided with a gradual move up the Formula 1 standings for Williams.  

As recently as 2022, Williams finished bottom of the championship and in 2020, it failed to score a single point. Gradually, its tally has increased and this year it is sitting comfortably in fifth with 70 points – 18 clear of sixth-place Aston Martin.  

“We obviously started the year in a really good place,” Albon told Autosport.

“And that P5 [in Melbourne] kind of felt like it just it created that great energy, but also settled everyone into like a: ‘Okay, we can do this, we have a good car.’ 

“We saw in winter testing in Bahrain we had a good car. Melbourne cemented that. And then it was like, Okay, now, now we can kind of just get into our season.”  

Since the season-opener in Australia, Williams has picked up some of its best results in years with Albon and team-mate Carlos Sainz at the helm. It has finished fifth on three occasions – the team’s best result since a freakish 2021 Belgian Grand Prix – and had four consecutive double-points finishes – a first since 2016.  

“Nice atmosphere” at Williams  

But it’s the way WIlliams has scored its points that has impressed Albon the most this year. Previously, he has been forced into audacious strategy calls or had to hope for changeable conditions to climb up the rankings. This year, however, it’s come down to “just being very solid”. 

“It’s not been a season like others, where we’ve had to take risks and do different things in terms of strategy to get points,” Albon explained.  

“It’s a nice atmosphere to have, because we’re consistently competitive and we don’t need to take silly risks. 

“Like, if you think about Spa, Melbourne and Silverstone, when there were these crazy mixed condition races, we didn’t do anything crazy. We were very sensible in our choices, and we managed good points.” 

While the jump from ninth in 2024 to fifth this year for Williams may seem miraculous, Albon is quick to highlight the work that has gone on behind the scenes to get the side to the point it’s at now.  

A shift in philosophy for its car ahead of the 2024 season initially put it on the back foot, but “a lot of work” from the engineers at Williams left it with a car that was more consistent – a characteristic that is proving vital in the tight midfield battle.  

“Now we’ve moved up, and we’ve got a consistent car, we’re the most consistent midfield car I’d like to say,” Albon adds.  

“And then, in terms of your mindset going into every race, there’s no kind of like [feeling that] this is one that we’ve got to maximise everything. It’s like, okay, let’s see how this weekend goes. If we just do our thing, we’re going to be okay.”