Alex Albon: The forgotten 2019 rookie
- Maham Mir
- 3 hours ago
- 5 min read
Written by Maham Mir, Edited by Marit Everett
The class of 2025 rookies were perhaps one of the best to enter the sport in recent years. With Formula 2 champion, Gabriel Bortoleto, and the runner-up in 2024, Isack Hadjar on the grid alongside other notable talents, it would be easy to suggest that they are the most talented group of rookies to enter the sport in recent years.
However, to do so would be to forget another class of rookies that entered the sport just over seven years ago. That is the group of Lando Norris, George Russell and Alex Albon. Out of these three rookies who were promoted to the pinnacle of motorsports in 2019, two of these drivers celebrated 150 race starts in 2025, have gone on to become multiple race winners at top teams and one has even become a world champion.
One of these rookies, however, has had a less straightforward time in Formula One since his promotion—Albon. Although brought into F1 through the Red Bull Driver Development Programme, his journey to a full-time F1 seat was anything but smooth.
Prior to his F1 promotion, Albon was in fact dropped by the Red Bull Company in 2012. Competing in F2 alongside Norris and Russell in 2018, Albon lost out on the title to Russell in the final weekend of the season. At the time, he had no hopes of a F1 promotion and instead was looking towards the Formula E grid for a full-time seat. However, Albon’s fate changed course when the team that dropped him in 2012 came back to call.
Albon was announced as the second driver for Toro Rosso, a previous team name for Racing Bulls. The British born Thai driver would go on to partner Daniil Kyvatt as Norris joined McLaren and Russell joined Williams.
Within his first few races, Albon established himself as a mid-field force to be reckoned with. Scoring points in his second race at the Bahrain Grand Prix, finishing P9, Albon then went on to score 16 points in his first 10 races.
As Albon flourished at the junior team, Pierre Gasly struggled to get up to speed at the senior team and match the performance of his teammate, Max Verstappen. At the Hungarian Grand Prix, only 10 races into the season, it was announced that Albon would replace Gasly at the senior team from the Belgian Grand Prix onwards.
In his debut race for Red Bull at the Belgian Grand Prix, Albon finished P5 despite starting in P17. Albon experienced his first missed opportunity for a podium finish at the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix. On the penultimate lap of the race, contact between himself and Lewis Hamilton saw Albon plummet from second place to ultimately finish P14.
At the end of an impressive debut season, where he finished with the highest ranking out of all three rookies in the World Driver’s Championship standings, Albon was awarded the FIA’s Rookie of the Year award. However, the fairytale of 2019 was not to last as Albon moved into his sophomore season.
In 2020, the pressure on Albon at the senior Red Bull team continued to grow as did the lack of security regarding his seat. The drastically altered F1 season began in Austria where the Austrian Grand Prix saw another missed opportunity for Albon.
Despite running in the podium places until the final few laps of the race, contact with Hamilton saw Albon drop down the running order. After sustaining damage due to the contact, Albon was forced to retire from the race. Whilst Albon watched from the garage, Norris got his maiden podium.
Positive results followed the missed opportunity in Austria however a podium finish continued to evade him. For former Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, the growing gap between Albon and teammate Verstappen was the main cause for concern.
On one occasion, Horner stated that “we need two cars closer together”. At a later race weekend, Horner further identified that the team needed Albon to “demonstrate that he’s absolutely the right guy to be in that car alongside Max next year” to secure his seat for 2021.
At the Tuscan Grand Prix, Albon finally took his first F1 podium, becoming the first Thai driver in F1 history to do so. However, what followed was a string of disappointing results where Albon scored only a single point over the next four rounds.
A second podium followed at the Bahrain Grand Prix in the closing stages of the season although rumours had already begun circulating that Albon would not retain his seat for 2021. In the end, he was relegated to the sidelines as a test and reserve driver, replaced by Sergio Pérez. While Albon was demoted, Norris and Russell continued to succeed at their respective teams.
After a year on the sidelines, 2022 brought a new opportunity as Russell moved to Mercedes and Albon replaced him at Williams. Following the announcement, former Williams Team Principal Jost Capito stated “Alex is one of the most exciting young talents in motorsport, yet comes with a large amount of F1 experience from his time at Red Bull.”
At the 2022 Australian Grand Prix, Albon scored his first points for his new team after a strategy choice saw him pit on the penultimate lap of the race. Although the season was filled with ups and downs, he scored four out of the eight points registered for Williams in his debut season for the team.
The progress of the team continued to fluctuate during the ground-effects era, as 2023 and 2024 brought a mixed bag of results. Although Williams finished P7 in the World Constructors' Championship standings in 2023, with Albon scoring all but one of their points, 2024 saw the Grove based team take a step backwards in their development. Nevertheless, Albon continued to score points and his consistency allowed Williams to stay in the midfield.
2025, with a brand new teammate, was perhaps Albon’s most successful season till date. In the final year of the set of regulations, Albon scored 73 points, allowing him to finish P8 in the WDC standings, the first Williams driver to do so since 2016.
Albon has been an integral part of Williams’ march back towards the front. Despite working under two different team principals and partnering four different teammates during his tenure at the team so far, Albon has remained consistent in his work and results as well.
Although Carlos Sainz, his current teammate, was able to record two podium finishes in 2025, the same result continues to elude Albon. Speaking ahead of the 2026 season, Albon commented “I’m hoping that my podium chances come a little bit sooner rather than later”.
In comparison to the headlines written about his one-time fellow rookies, Albon’s career has had highlights that have gone under the radar. Instead, media focus on Albon has centered around his difficulties and underwhelming performances.
In 2026, Albon will celebrate the milestone of 150 race starts, an achievement that has been long in the making. With rumours swirling about the power of the Mercedes engine and the start of a new regulatory era which has always been the focus for Williams, only time will tell if Albon will get the opportunity to share the same success as his one-time fellow rookies, Norris and Russell.
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