Alex Albon believes the arrival of Carlos Sainz at Williams will assist him to higher show his personal expertise degree by eradicating the burden that got here from being the benchmark himself because the staff’s skilled driver.
Sainz opted to affix Williams for 2025 after Ferrari signed Lewis Hamilton to interchange him, the Spaniard making the transfer off the again of 4 victories for the Scuderia. Albon has been at Williams since 2022, partnering Nicholas Latifi in his first season and latterly Logan Sargeant and Franco Colapinto, and the 28-year-old believes Sainz would be the reference level he must cement his personal repute.
“I prefer it — it’s a fantastic problem,” Albon instructed RACER. “I believe Carlos is coming in with a whole lot of pedigree. I believe he’s had a improbable season as effectively towards Charles [Leclerc], who we all know is a particularly robust driver.
“For myself, it’s nice to have the ability to have somebody who I can immediately evaluate towards. I really feel prefer it’s at all times been a little bit of a burden to me in some methods as a result of I really feel like nobody actually is aware of the place I stand. I’ve that confidence in myself that I’m fairly good.”
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Albon admits his personal expertise of the Purple Bull setup is more likely to be usurped by Sainz’s more moderen historical past at Ferrari, and thinks that can assist push Williams because it seems to maneuver ahead in 2025 and ’26.
“I’m glad that Carlos is there … simply what he brings to Williams goes to be actually essential to us,” he mentioned. “That have that he has, the data of being in a high staff like Ferrari that’s performing effectively week in, week out.
“After I joined Williams from Purple Bull, clearly there was loads that I wanted to provide and needed to provide to enhance the staff. However I’ve now been within the staff for 3 years and as a lot as I nonetheless push and put the staff right into a route that I believe is required, having that contemporary mindset into it, I believe is barely going to be useful.
“For me as effectively, as a teammate, I believe I’m going to be very open-eared — simply wanting to listen to what he has to say in regards to the automobile, but additionally what route he believes we have to go in.”
