Elbon: 2022 was my best season in Formula 1

Alex Albon, who took part in the F1 Nation podcast, spoke of a wonderful evening in honor of Sebastian Vettel, who brought all the drivers of the championship together for the start of the weekend in Abu Dhabi, and also summed up his first season in the Williams series. team.

Q: Is it fair to say that there has probably never been such a close collaboration as there is now in Formula 1?
Alex Albon: Yes, I am willing to agree to this. In my opinion, riders of older generations said that they were once almost real enemies, but now everything is different. We can still be called friends.

Obviously we are not friends on track, but off track we spend quite a lot of time together, because the season consists of more than twenty races and I have known many championship drivers since I was 8-9 years old. I’ve really spent a lot of time with them, but there’s another important factor: the drivers who have been in Formula 1 for a long time – Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Valtteri Bottas – they’re all great guys.

They received us very well, it was they who tried to create such a comfortable atmosphere that we feel like in one big family. And it’s very cool.

The dinner we all came for on Thursday evening was very special, it was a lot of fun. My cheeks literally hurt afterwards because I was smiling and laughing all the time! In general everything went fine!

Q: Answer a very important question that everyone is interested in: which of the racers drank non-alcoholic drinks at dinner and which insanely expensive wines?
Alex Albon: I’m afraid I’ll get in trouble if I tell you! We had strict agreements that we were not allowed to share what happened in the restaurant with anyone. In general, everyone there told each other very interesting stories …

Q: It is rumored that the bill for that dinner was over 140 thousand – is that true?
Alex Albon: This is complete nonsense! We’re normal people and we don’t pack caviar into golden spoons. The dinner menu was prepared in advance, as many riders follow strict diets and Lewis is generally vegan. By the way, it was he who organized and paid for everything, for which I thank you! And Lewis knows how much was on the bill, and the bill that sparked all the rumors is from another restaurant we haven’t even been to.

Q: Finally, let’s take stock of your first season at Williams…
Alex Albon: This year we were in last place in the Constructors’ Championship, and of course this is not the result we wanted to achieve, and this is not the level our team wants to be at. But overall I’m happy with the season.

Before that I had not driven in Formula 1 for a whole year and after returning to the championship nobody guarantees that you will be able to perform successfully again. Although I am confident in my abilities, it was still unclear how it would turn out. But now I can say that this year has been my best season in Formula 1 for me.

I feel like I’ve had a very noticeable growth professionally, if we compare 2022 to my first year in the championship. I also feel that I have worked very well with the team and together we can achieve a lot.

Of course we weren’t competitive enough this year and after the winter testing it was clear that we were going to have a difficult season, but we still earned points and some races were really cool. Moreover, we managed to get points when, it seems, we should not have finished in the top ten.

The team has done everything they can and if we have a car that is at least slightly better than the FW44 then we go into the second part of qualifying more often and fight for points more often. We know exactly what the weak points of our car are and while this doesn’t mean the team will be able to solve all the problems, the most important thing is that we know which direction to go.

Overall, I am satisfied with my work and the team’s work, and while the results are not encouraging, I do not see any obstacles preventing us from making changes for the better.