Alex Albon reveals critical Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz 'learning' differences

Carlos Sainz joining Williams at the start of the current F1 season has provided Alex Albon with a serious benchmark to measure himself against at the Grove-based squad for the first time.

Upon taking a seat at the nine-time constructors' champions in 2022, the Thai racer had been paired with a string of underperforming and inexperienced team-mates, from Nicholas Latifi to Logan Sargeant to Franco Colapinto.

That limited his opportunity to develop with, and learn from, a team-mate over those three seasons, but with the Spanish driver coming on board from Ferrari, Albon finds himself with a competitive sparring partner for the first time since his 18-month stint at Red Bull, where he struggled to establish himself alongside the dominant and imperious Max Verstappen.

The Dutchman has a tendency to bludgeon his team-mates into submission and has rightly developed a reputation as a "team-mate killer", something that is still playing out in 2025, with the difficulties Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda have faced in Milton Keynes. 

It led the energy drinks-backed team to let Albon go for the 2021 campaign, with a year out of F1 before his switch to Williams.

Now, the 29-year-old can insightfully reflect on that early stage of his career and what he took from his time with Verstappen, contrasting it against the experience he is currently sharing with Sainz, another one of F1's brightest talents.

"It's different," Albon told RacingNews365 when asked how much he has learned from the pair, as part of an exclusive interview. "It's very different.

"So when I was with Max, I was so consumed in just myself trying to improve, and a lot of that was kind of just digging myself into data and understanding, 'Okay, why... How can Max do this?' And 'how do I drive around these issues, and how does he feel there?'

"But I was inexperienced, so I didn't really know the right questions to ask in many ways, and I didn't really, I never really got on top of it.

"I talk a lot about my year out, which kind of allowed me a bit more time to get on top of it before I got back in, and then with Carlos, it's more: I do have the bandwidth, I do have the mental space, and I do have the knowledge to understand.

"I think he's very... There are drivers who are kind of more feel-based and more engineering-based, and I could say Carlos is much more engineering-based in terms of his language, and he understands the engineering world of driving."

Learning from Sainz 'outside the car'

With Albon at a more established point in his career, and bedded into the project at Williams to return the team to its former glory, he is better able to appraise the differences between himself and Sainz, even the subtle ones, and use them to improve together.

When the four-time grand prix winner joined Williams, many expected him to comfortably have the measure of Albon.

That has not been the case, and the two-time podium finisher has been one of 2025's stand-out performers, helping to push the James Vowles-led team to its current fifth in the constructors' standings.

Currently on 70 points at the summer break, the team has only 14 points fewer already this campaign than in the past seven seasons combined.

And of those, Albon has 54 points to Sainz's 16. However, there is an open and collaborative approach between the two, as they strive to continue Williams' ascent back to competitiveness - and there is a lot the former is taking from the latter.

"And so, when we look at each other, when I think about Carlos and me, there is obviously the normal stuff we compare," Albon explained.

"I look at his driving... We are different; there are different driving styles with us. They're subtle, very subtle.

"We have a driver coach nowadays as well, who's helping us extract that time from each other."

To Albon, perhaps the biggest advantage of being team-mates with Sainz is what he is learning from the 30-year-old off the track.

"But then the other side, which I learned from Carlos, is more is his communication and the way that Ferrari works... their work ethic and how they present meetings and things like that," he said.

"I think that's been really interesting, because, like I said, [he is] a driver with experience and he knows what he wants in the car.

"I've learned more, possibly outside the car from Carlos than I have inside the car, in many ways, but that's not in a bad way.

"That just shows that he's very good with the team and understands the direction that the car needs to go in."