Albon sparks suggestion of Williams F1 exit

Alex Albon has refused to confirm that he will be racing for Williams in 2025.

The Thai-British driver was touted as a candidate for the vacant seat at Mercedes when Lewis Hamilton confirmed he would depart for Ferrari next year.

Williams team principal James Vowles has since confirmed Albon has a contract in place with the Grove-based squad for 2025 but did not deny the 28-year-old could be bought out of his deal.

The driver market took another step forward last month when Nico Hulkenberg was confirmed at one of the Stake F1 seats ahead of its transition to Audi in 2026.

With more movement expected in the coming weeks, Albon was asked by media including RacingNews365 if he was sure he would be at Williams in 2025, to which he replied: “I won’t comment for now. I’m still focused on this.

“Everything is moving early, very quickly, obviously Nico has just pulled somewhat of a trigger at Sauber and I’m sure the second one is going to follow soon.

“Everything including my focus on where I go, not so much for next year but the year after, focusing on that side of things.

“These next couple of weeks are where all of the decisions for the whole grid are going to be finalised.”

Albon downplays importance of 2025 move

Many of the drivers out of contract at the end of this year are looking to longer-term deals with new technical regulations coming into play in 2026.

It will mark the biggest engine regulations change since 2014 while the aerodynamic rules will also be heavily refined.

However, Albon has played down the importance of being embedded into a team one year prior to the introduction of the fresh regulations.

“I think it is more just the gelling of the team, teams like that,” he said. 

“2025/26 is a nice way to understand how the team have conceptually designed their car and when you go to 2026 there is going to be such a huge difference to the car, it’s nice to know where the DNA of the car is.

“It’s important to feedback, understanding the language, the communication, that’s why teams are so focused on 2025/26 transition. Is it make or break? No.”