George and Nicky sing Alex’s praises on his return to the sport

Since his return to Formula One following a season away from the grid, Alex Albon has earned plenty of praise after putting in several strong performances with Williams in 2022.

With two points finishes in the opening seven Grands Prix, the Thai racer has enjoyed the best start to a campaign for any Grove-based driver since 2018, something that the man he replaced in the team has been keen to promote.

Speaking to F1.com, George Russell sung the praises of his good mate Albono in Monaco, saying: “I think Alex has done an exceptional job, there was obviously no secret, he had a tough time at Red Bull, but I think all of us knew how talented Alex was.

“We've all raced each other since 2011,” George added, continuing: “Alex was a few years older than us, so he was sort of competing against [Nyck] De Vries at the time in KF1 I remember.

“And he's always been there, he's always been one of the very best. So it's no surprise to me and [I’m] happy to see that he's back in Formula 1 and, I think, has cemented his position.”

One person who knows both drivers well is a certain Nicholas Latifi, having been George’s stablemate for the previous two years and Alex’s this season, as well as during the 2018 Formula 2 campaign.

He knows better than most how the pair shape up, and believes it’s no surprise that his current sparring partner has it the ground running.

“Similarities? I mean, it goes without saying they're both extremely quick drivers,” Nicky said.

“Especially when Alex was announced as the race driver who was going to be my teammate, I had no illusions that he was not going to be on the pace straight away, despite him missing out a year..

“I obviously raced against him in 2018 as his teammate, and I know just how quick he was… There’s obviously some little different driving styles here and there, which I kind of knew going into the season as well, just from again having been teammates with Alex before.

“I won’t share the driving style secrets because maybe they don't want to disclose that! But no, it's been great having them both as teammates.”