The numbers behind Alex Albon’s recent red-hot form

Alex Albon has scored points at two - Melbourne and Miami - of the last three Grands Prix, finishing one place shy at the one race he didn’t - Imola.

We all know that his new red hair has clearly helped proceedings, but there’s more to racing in Formula One than a trip to the salon.

Join us as we take a look through some of the numbers behind AA23’s recent charges through the field.

It was a run that began Down Under where Alex took the title of “Tyre Whisperer” after an almost miraculous 57-lap stint on the hard compound tyre. It was a strategy that took him from last to seventh before making his mandatory pit stop at the start of the final lap.

Although he was in the box slightly longer than usual, he pipped Zhou Guanyu to the first corner to cling onto 10th, securing his, and the team's, first point of the season

Albono’s mammoth run in Melbourne wasn’t just about running around and preserving the life in his tyre, his performance just kept getting better and better, as AA23 got quicker lap by lap.

His fastest lap of the Grand Prix, a 1:22.589, was set on the 54th lap of running, just shy of 300km of running. You’d be annoyed if your road car needed its tyres switched after that distance, but for an F1 machine to be going quicker on rubber that old, is pretty impressive.

Alex finished just outside of the points-paying positions in Imola, going from P20 at the start of the Sprint to P11 by the end of the Grand Prix. In the changing conditions, our No23 managed to get past both Pierre Gasly and Lewis Hamilton before keeping the pair behind him for well over half the race distance.

In part, this was thanks to the raw speed his FW44 offered him in Emilia Romagna, going quickest through the Imola speed trap at a speed of 297.9kp/h. Nicky also ran quickly, just 1kp/h down on his teammate.

During the last three races, Alex has completed 177 laps of Grand Prix running, out of a possible total of 178. It’s a testament to the reliability of the FW44 that this has been possible, with the Thai racer only missing out on 100% lap completion after being passed by the leading pack in Imola.

It’s fair to say it’s been a pretty mammoth three-race stretch, heading to Melbourne, Imola and, most recently, Miami. But the figure - 64 - represents the minimum number of hours he’d have spent flying to and from each of these events across the last six weeks. Once again it displays how much commitment is required, not just from the drivers, but from the wider team as a whole.

The next couple of races, a double-header taking us to Barcelona and Monaco, will provide some light relief before we’re back on long haul flights again, where we’ll be Baku and Montreal bound.

Lately, Alex has been able to stay out of trouble in what has been an incredibly tight midfield fight this season. As a result, he has gained a total of 26 positions during the last three Grands Prix.

These recent charges through the field have seen him reach a total of 200 points earned across his F1 career, which is quite an achievement. This leads us neatly on to…

After eventually being awarded a P9 finish an hour after the chequered flag had dropped in Miami, Alex’s points total so far this season is up to three. That’s the most points earned by a Williams driver at this stage of a season since 2018.

Of course, we’d love that figure to keep climbing, and it’s performances like the ones we’ve seen over the last three rounds keep everyone motivated to close the gap and start fighting for more regular points finishes.