Alex Albon reveals James Vowles impact after 'doom and gloom' Williams feeling

Alex Albon has revealed the significant impact team principal James Vowles has had on Williams, a team that felt "a bit doom and gloom" when he first joined.

Albon became part of the Grove-based outfit for the 2022 F1 season after spending the previous year in DTM, following his demotion by Red Bull, who had replaced him with Sergio Perez.

When the 29-year-old arrived at Williams, Jost Capito was the team principal, and the British squad was very much considered a backmarker.

Vowles joined a year later, after Capito stepped down in December 2022, and has remained in charge of Williams ever since.

Under the former Mercedes strategy chief, the historic outfit has made huge strides in the right direction, with Albon noting a major shift in the team's culture since Vowles’ arrival.

"The biggest thing is the culture of the team. You walk into Grove, it looks the same, but you go inside and it feels different," Albon told RacingNews365 in an exclusive interview.

"So, when I think about the biggest difference, it’s purely when I remember my first time at Williams.

"Going to the factory, no one was very confident, people were talking badly about themselves, which is never a good sign. Possibly a bit stuck in their old ways, and just a bit doom and gloom, really."

New Williams culture

Vowles has transformed Williams' culture under his leadership, with the team currently leading the midfield battle and sitting fifth in the constructors' championship.

Albon has experienced a lot in his three and a half seasons racing for the team, but says the factory environment is now unrecognisable compared to when he first arrived in 2022.

Explaining how things have changed, Albon said: "You go into it now, and the first thing I think of, Vowles himself is like this, and it feeds into the team, is that he's very open and honest.

"So you get this feeling, he talks about this a lot, of breaking everything down and seeing how it builds back up.

"And so there's a freedom and a kind of an openness to everything that we go about our racing, there's no ego involved. And the feedback and the work that we do as drivers really gets taken on. And there's just this energy to be better.

"And so I think that culture definitely wasn't there when I first joined. And now it's great because you have, I won't call it a young team, but it's been rejuvenated in terms of it's just, it's energy, it's a really exciting place to be."