F1 star dished dirt on rivals to help seal return to the grid

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F1 star dished dirt on rivals to help seal return to the grid

Alex Albon has shared how he used his rivals' form to help seal his return to the F1 grid

Cal Gaunt

Wednesday 6 December 2023 14:57

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Alex Albon leveraged compelling data that compared his performances at Red Bull with those of Pierre Gasly and Sergio Perez to persuade Williams to bring him on board in 2022.

Having been initially brought in as a mid-season replacement for the struggling Gasly at Red Bull, Albon faced similar difficulties to the Frenchman.

During his tenure with the world championship-winning outfit, the 27-year-old was unable to rival his former team-mate Max Verstappen from 2019 to 2020, eventually resulting in his dismissal by Christian Horner and leaving him without a race seat. Albon then found himself demoted to the role of test and reserve driver for the 2021 season.

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After Perez took over the second seat, the Mexican has also encountered challenges in matching Verstappen's electrifying pace - which was duly noted by Albon.

Alex Albon has impressed since returning to the grid with Williams in 2022

Alex Albon says he compiled data comparing his performances to Pierre Gasly at Red Bull to convince team principals to take a chance on him

Alex Albon also compared his data with Sergio Perez, who is currently partnering Max Verstappen at Red Bull

Albon: Everyone would do the same

It wasn't until he meticulously compiled a spreadsheet comparing his statistical performances with those of his predecessor and successor, presenting it to team principals, that he successfully secured his return to F1 with Williams.

"I kind of did something I think everyone would do in the same way as me," Albon told the High Performance podcast.

"I basically got statistics and research on Pierre Gasly, who I replaced myself in the team and then Sergio [Perez] at the time, who is currently in the seat.

"It was very simple statistics, but most of it was relative to Max so speed, qualifying, race, on an Excel sheet."

Albon has proven to be a standout performer since joining Williams, outperforming his former team-mate Nicholas Latifi in the previous year and asserting dominance over Latifi's replacement, Logan Sargeant, in 2023.