Alex Albon has dismissed that the increased competition he has experienced at Williams from Franco Colapinto has had an impact on his performances in Formula 1.
Albon has rebuilt his reputation with Williams since returning to the sport in 2022, having spent 2021 on the sidelines as a consequence of losing his drive at Red Bull.
However, Nicholas Latifi and Logan Sargeant’s respective struggles alongside him had prompted scepticism surrounding whether Albon was extracting the maximum.
Albon has encountered a tougher internal threat since, though, as Williams’ choice to replace Sargeant with Colapinto mid-season has ended up being a masterstroke.
The Argentine has hit the ground running in F1 since debuting in Monza, matching the two points finishes a more established Albon has managed in his six-race spell.
Colapinto’s exploits have heightened the pressure on Albon, whose position at Williams is assured as his team-mate will vacate his spot to the incoming Carlos Sainz.
But Albon has insisted that he has welcomed Colapinto’s presence, citing that having two drivers on a similar level has been a help to Williams’ strive to climb the grid.
Asked whether Colapinto’s headline results had got into his head, Albon told media including Motorsport Week in Brazil: “Not really, no. It’s always been about me.
“The focus is always about myself and my own performance.
“It has always been interesting, especially last week, it was a shame we never could finish the race, but the pace and the feeling of the car was much more like it normally felt like.
“I think we’re still understanding the car, it seems like – depending on the weekend – one of us seems to find the sweet spot with it, but it’s not been consistently enough at the moment.
“The positive thing is that, if you take Mexico, there were a lot of lessons learned from just trying stuff from his side of the garage which genuinely improved it for me as well.
“So it’s nice to have that level where we can learn from each other and take from each other’s cars, that dynamic within the team is great to have.”
Albon highlights ‘dark art’ in F2
Colapinto’s impressive stint in F1 comes despite him having been sixth in Formula 2 with a single win at the point when Williams handed him an unanticipated call-up.
Albon, who was third to George Russell and Lando Norris in F2 in 2018, has argued that the “dark arts” involved in the second tier make it harder to assess the drivers.
Questioned to provide an answer on the difference between F2 and F1, Albon replied: “It’s tough. It’s a bit of a dark art I think.
“You need a very strong junior team and you need a team that truly understands Formula 2, Formula 3, knowing what teams are performing and what teams aren’t.
“Year to year, just like in F1, the top team is changing all the time and there’s not an understanding as to how can you quantify a midfield Formula 2 team versus a top tier Formula 2 team?
“The relationship the Formula 1 team has with the Formula 2 team, or with the driver themself, it’s a big unknown.
“Also just the fact that the Formula 1 teams now have so much power they can generally get their best drivers into the best teams.
“For example, Ferrari with Prema, or Red Bull with HiTech, there’s almost an allegiance towards it, so it does make it more complicated in some ways to really know what’s going on.
“Also there’s often reliability issues in Formula 2 so that makes it tricky.
“But as I said at the beginning, it just generally comes down to good management, good driver, junior teams and also the driver as well making the right choices.
“If they are being approached by multiple F1 teams, picking the one that they feel is going to support them the most.”
