Alex Albon has made a triumphant return to Formula 1, replacing the outgoing George Russell at Williams for the 2022 season. The Thai driver had his first taste of the new generation of Formula 1 cars during Barcelona testing following his year out from the sport.

Following the test in Barcelona, Albon discussed his initial experience with the Williams FW44.

“Yeah firstly, obviously the name of the game in these pre tests is mileage,” Albon commented. “New cars, new regulations, there’s a lot of things that can go wrong. There’s a lot of things, you need to make sure that the cars are running smoothly

“For us to get the mileage that we got, there’s only a few teams up on us on that side. It’s very impressive. I feel like we’ve given ourselves a very good base to work from. We’ve got the miles in but also we’ve got a car that’s forgiving, it feels good to drive, it gives you confidence and it gives us something to work pretty quickly on performance for Bahrain.”

With Albon returning from his hiatus with a new team and into a new set of technical regulations, the former Red Bull driver continued to discuss the similarities between his new team and Red Bull as well as the difficulties he faces due to the new situation.

“I think they [Red Bull and Williams] are actually very similar,” Albon said. “The way that Formula 1 teams are structured now as well, they’ve kind of got very similar structures within them. I obviously can’t tell you there’s a standout with either of them.

“I think it’s a good thing. It’s very professional, very positive within the engineering group that I’m working here trackside with Williams and it all feels good. As I said just now, we’re in a good position where we can already start focusing on performance, which is exciting as a driver. You can start speaking to the tyre guys, speaking to the performance guys about what we can do. So yeah I’d say it’s very similar.”

Continuing on to discuss the differences with the new cars, Albon highlighted his gap in experience makes comparison more difficult than other drivers.

“It’s harder for me to comment than most drivers, because I’m coming from a different team as well as a different car. A new car lets say, and a year out on top of that. The main feeling for me is, the cars feel good. Once a car is balanced properly there’s not much difference within what makes a car fast. It might be slightly different in terms of a balance but not really.

“I’d say more than anything it’s the weight that you can feel, and the stiffness as well of the car. Obviously everyone’s running them as low as they can and you get that feeling in your bum, as you can see as well, down the straights with all the shaking going on.

“Driving style wise they’re feeling pretty ok. They feel more like a mixture between an F2 and an F1 car but they are so stiff that you’ve just got to be in tune with the tracks, know all the bumps. You’ve got to be precise with your driving. You can’t be clumsy and hit kerbs because you’re losing lap time pretty quickly. 

“So yeah that’s really it. There’s subtleties to it but at the end of the day once the cars are finely tuned, which obviously coming after Barcelona there’s still some work to do but once we get towards Bahrain and into the season I think the cars will all get more and more similar.”

When asked if the new cars required you to dial back on a push lap, Albon says kerbs only seem to affect the cars at high speed which did not cause issues at Barcelona but may elsewhere.

“The platform is more disturned at high speeds, at low speeds they’re [the kerbs] not too bad. In Barcelona there’s only turns 15 and 16 that we start jumping. I think tracks like Singapore, for instance, Austin. It’s gonna get tricky. I think that’s when you’re gonna really see compromises”

Speaking on the new tyres which have been introduced, replacing the 13” tyres synonymous with Formula 1, Albon admits there’s not much difference.

“The tyres are different. Not just the cars but the tyres are stiff, the sidewalls are smaller and you can feel that as well. The tyres are still Pirellis. You can tell that. You can push them relatively hard but there’s still, especially in the long runs, there’s still some management required. 

“There’s not much difference. The only thing I would say, I think you can see it in the lap times, is there’s quite big jumps between compounds which I think everyone’s been a little surprised by.”

Albon continued to discuss how he is fitting in with his new team, admitting he is in some ways still playing catch up to his teammate Nicholas Latifi.

“Experience helps. That’s clear. I’ve been in Red Bull, been in a good position where I’ve been able to learn from the guys there. Inevitably I can bring that knowledge into Williams but there’s only so much you can give because cars are amazingly different. Even though they go around at similar lap times. Things I would do in a Red Bull doesn’t necessarily translate to the Williams.

“I find myself also listening to Nicky [Nicholas Latifi] a lot and seeing his comments because the cars even though they are so new, I always feel like the cars carry a DNA. The characteristics of cars always stay somewhat similar.

“I do feel coming into Williams I have the opportunity to be more decisive and more vocal in areas I feel like we can improve on, but otherwise there's the other half which is still playing catchup and learning what the team has to say, what Nicky has to say and even what George [Russell] has to say.”