Alexander Albon is a Thai-British Formula 1 driver and the lead driver at Williams Racing, where he carries the number 23 and races under the Thai flag. After a turbulent early career that saw him dropped by Red Bull, he has rebuilt his reputation at Grove into one of the most reliable midfield drivers on the grid, and is contracted to Williams through 2027. ¹

He was born Alexander Philippe Albon Ansusinha on 23 March 1996 at the Portland Hospital in Westminster, London, to a British former racing driver, Nigel Albon, and a Thai mother, Kankamol "Minky" Albon. He grew up in Suffolk and chose to compete under the Thai flag, making him one of very few Thai drivers in F1 history. ¹

“Albon began karting competitively around the age of eight and rose quickly, signing to the Red Bull Junior Team in 2008.”

Early life and karting

Albon began karting competitively around the age of eight and rose quickly, signing to the Red Bull Junior Team in 2008. He won the 2010 CIK-FIA World Cup and European Championship in the KF3 class and in 2011 finished runner-up in both the WSK Euro Series and the CIK-FIA World Championship in KF1. He was a childhood karting rival and close friend of George Russell, having raced against him since their junior days. ¹

Junior formulae

Moving into cars, Albon contested Formula Renault before stepping up to GP3, where in 2016 he finished runner-up to Charles Leclerc with four wins and 177 points for ART Grand Prix. He then moved to Formula 2, scoring two podiums and tenth in 2017 before a strong 2018 with DAMS brought four wins, three poles and eight podiums and third in the championship behind George Russell and Lando Norris — results that earned him a return to the Red Bull fold and a Formula 1 seat. ¹

Formula 1 career

Albon made his F1 debut with Toro Rosso at the 2019 Australian Grand Prix. He scored 16 points in 12 races and impressed enough that Red Bull promoted him mid-season, after the Hungarian Grand Prix, to the senior team alongside Max Verstappen, replacing Pierre Gasly. He finished eighth in the 2019 championship with 92 points and was a strong rookie. In 2020 he scored his two career podiums — both third places, at the Tuscan Grand Prix (where he became the first Thai driver on an F1 podium) and the Sakhir/Bahrain Grand Prix — and ended the year seventh with 105 points, but Red Bull dropped him from the race seat for 2021 in favour of Sergio Perez. ¹

After a season as Red Bull's test and reserve driver, during which he raced and won his maiden race in the DTM touring car series at the Nurburgring, Albon returned to F1 in 2022 with Williams, quickly establishing himself as the team's reference point. ¹

The Williams years

Through his first Williams seasons Albon repeatedly dragged an uncompetitive car into the points, scoring 4 points in 2022, 27 (and 13th) in 2023, and 12 in 2024. His breakthrough came in 2025, which he described as his "best season yet": he scored 73 points to finish eighth in the Drivers' Championship, the top midfield driver, and helped Williams to fifth in the Constructors' Championship with 137 points — the team's best result since 2017 and more than its previous several seasons combined. ^{2 3 4}

2025 season in detail

Albon was the team's early-season engine, scoring in seven of the opening eight races with three fifth-place finishes — in Australia, Miami and Imola — and frequently out-qualifying his vastly experienced teammate Carlos Sainz. The second half was leaner: he failed to score in the final eight Grands Prix, a drought he put down to "nothing more than a bad run," and during that stretch it was Sainz who delivered Williams' headline podiums at Baku and Qatar. Even so, Albon finished the year nine points clear of Sainz, and praised "the biggest step out of the four years" the factory had taken. ^{2 4}

2026 season and current form

For 2026 Albon continues at Williams alongside Sainz, the team's most experienced and rapid pairing in a decade, as the sport resets around new chassis and power-unit regulations. He has spoken of his confidence that Williams can produce a strong car, and remains a central figure in James Vowles' long-term rebuild, although the team admitted to a difficult winter build that saw it miss an early shakedown. ^{5 6}

Driving style and character

Albon is known for an unflustered, consistent approach and a strong qualifying ability that lets him extract more than a midfield car should offer. He is articulate and popular within the paddock, and is widely seen as having matured considerably since his Red Bull spell — turning a second chance into a stable, valued front-of-the-midfield career. ⁴

Bottom line

With two podiums, no wins and no poles to his name through 2025, Albon's bare statistics undersell his value: he is the dependable benchmark around whom Williams is building, and 2025 was the season that confirmed his second-chance comeback as a genuine success. ^{1 4}