Every Alex Albon points finish for Williams Racing so far

Today marks two years since we confirmed that Alex Albon would be joining Williams Racing for the 2022 season.

A couple of trips around the sun later and Albono has played a key role in our climb back up the Constructors' Championship order.

Join us as we take a look back at Alex’s eight points-paying finishes for the team so far.

It took Alex just three rounds into his Williams Racing career to secure a first top 10 finish in our colours and, as will soon become a theme, he did it unconventionally.

When he woke up that Sunday morning in Melbourne having been sent to the back of the grid ahead of the race, he probably wouldn’t have been expecting to return home with a point in his back pocket.

But that is exactly what he did! A bold strategy supported by a stunning drive meant that Alex made up 10 positions during the race to cross the line P10.

Having started on the hard compound tyre, our Thai racer kept them bolted to his FW44 for 57 laps before switching to the softs for a final lap dash.

He needed to come out of the pits ahead of Zhou Guanyu and he did so by the barest of margins.

“We came in this morning, looked at our race predictions starting from last and felt pretty sad,” he shared later that afternoon, adding: “So to end Sunday with a point is extremely rewarding.

“It was a race where we took risks and really allowed our tyres to get into a nice window, and from then they just felt better and better.”

Just a couple of rounds later, Albono was back in the points once again at the inaugural Miami Grand Prix.

In an incredibly physical race, our No23 kept his cool and found himself in P11 when a Safety Car was brought out with less than 20 laps to go.

He was passed shortly after the restart but a collision between Sebastian Vettel and Mick Schumacher shot Alex into a points-paying position.

Ahead of him, Fernando Alonso had a five-second penalty lingering over him, but Alex finished 5.2s behind the Spaniard, meaning we settled for P10.

Or so we thought! Alonso was handed another time penalty after the race and our red-haired racer (at the time) was classified in P9.

The first Grand Prix back after the summer break took us to Spa-Francorchamps for a race that Alex himself ranked as one of his best.

An already strong qualifying result was assisted by penalties applied throughout the field, meaning Alex lined up in P6 and, for the first time in his Williams career, the points were his to lose.

He lost a couple of positions at the start but gained one back following a collision between Lewis Hamilton and Alonso on the opening tour.

A mixture of stunning overtakes – including one on Schumacher at Eau Rouge – and a resolute defence kept a queue of five drivers behind locking in what would be his fourth and final point of 2022.

“This was one of the tougher races I’ve done in my career and also one of my personal bests,” Alex explained post-race, adding: “We did the best job we could today and it’s a good feeling.”

Having just spent three days clocking up hundreds of kilometres at the Bahrain International Circuit in pre-season testing, it’s fair to say many didn’t expect us to be inside the top 10 at the end of race one.

However, that’s exactly what Alex achieved. After gaining positions in the opening exchanges, he’d remain in or around the final points-paying spot for the majority of the evening.

Late on, Albono was forced to defend from a charging Yuki Tsunoda, but the No22 was met with stern resistance from our No23 and found no way past as Alex picked up our best opening round result for six years.

Speaking of defensive driving, Alex’s ability was on full display yet again when we went to Canada with an updated FW45 at his disposal.

A dramatic Qualifying session saw him start from P9 but he’d gain a place when George Russell collided with the wall at Turn 9.

The Safety Car was deployed and we pulled Alex in to switch his medium compounds for a set of hards with 58 laps left to go.

After some battles with Oscar Piastri and Kevin Magnussen, he found himself running in P7 and we were now committed to the one-stop strategy.

On ageing tyres, he had his good friend Mr Russell for company, but the Mercedes just couldn’t find a way through.

Russell retired with 15 laps to go, leaving Esteban Ocon free to tuck up behind our Kraken Rear Wing.

The Alpine piled pressure on Alex throughout the last 15 laps, but there was nothing he could do – Alex didn’t crack and P7 was secured, his best finish for the team up to that point.

Our home race and the start of our 800 Grands Prix celebrations couldn’t have gone much better as Alex brought his FW45 home ahead of both Ferraris to score four more points.

Despite a clean getaway, Alex found himself one position down after the opening lap and was later passed by the recovering Red Bull of Sergio Perez.

On Lap 32, Alex was heading in for what would be his only pit stop when Magnussen’s smoking Haas saw the Virtual Safety Car deployed.

A cheap pit stop for our No23 saw him return to the circuit in P9 whilst the VSC was upgraded to a full Safety Car.

With 14 laps to go, we were back in racing conditions and Albono set about reeling in Perez and Carlos Sainz ahead.

The Mexican passed the Spaniard at the final turn and this allowed Alex to pull alongside the Ferrari on the pit straight before producing the overtake of the afternoon, swooping up the inside at the high-speed first turn elevating him to P8.

The 2023 Dutch Grand Prix was an incredibly dramatic afternoon of racing and despite recording another P8 finish, there was still a slight element of disappointment – a sign of how far we’ve come in a short amount of time.

After starting P4, we’d have hoped for a slightly more conventional 72 laps but what followed was anything but.

A downpour shortly after the lights went out saw two-thirds of the field bail in for intermediates within the first two laps – we kept both cars out and looked to make it work.

For Alex, he kept his soft tyres alive and climbed back through the order from P18 right up to P5 when he boxed on Lap 44.

Filtering out in P11, Albono again made his way up the order through a mixture of overtakes and passes whilst drivers ahead stopped.

Whilst in P6 with 11 laps to go, the rain returned and this time it was a deluge. Pitting a lap later than some, Alex reemerged in ninth before the decision was made to red flag proceedings.

After a 45-minute stoppage, we resumed and Alex passed Russell for P8, where he stayed until the chequered flag to earn himself four more points.

You don’t have to cast your minds back that far for Albono’s most recent points exploits – just last weekend, in fact.

At Formula 1’s fastest circuit, there were always going to be high hopes as we arrived with our slippery FW45 and Alex would convert his P6 grid spot to a P7 finish on Sunday.

Defending on hard tyres throughout much of the race, our No23 added six more points to his 2023 tally and in doing so, became our highest-scoring driver since 2017.

So that’s your recap of Alex’s eight top 10 finishes for Williams Racing so far and we are already looking forward to the next one.