A friend of Alexander Albon's since the youth ranks, George Russell saw the Anglo-Dutchman replace him at Williams this year and praised the #57's path to Formula One
Replacing George Russell at Williams after the Briton's departure to Mercedes, Alexander Albon received several compliments from Lewis Hamilton's teammate. On his return to Formula 1 after a year's absence, the Anglo-Dutchman has done his best with the British team's limited FW44 and has already managed to score three points this season. Russell, for his part, said he never doubted his friend's talent - even in the difficult times experienced at Red Bull.
"I think 'Alex' [Albon] is doing an exceptional job," Russell praised. "Obviously, there's no secret. He had a tough time at Red Bull, but I think all of us, probably Max [Verstappen] included, knew how talented 'Alex' was," he commented.
Russell recalled the trajectory of the drivers before they reached Formula 1, in a generation in which several names managed to reach the top category of motor racing - such as George himself, Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly, Lando Norris, among others. And even among such talented rivals, Albon managed to stand out, recalls the Mercedes driver.
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"We've all been racing against each other since 2011," he said. "'Alex' was a few years older than us, so he was competing against [Nyck] De Vries at that time, in KF1 [highest level of karting], if I'm not mistaken. And he was always there, he was always one of the best. So it's no surprise to me, and I'm happy to see that he is back in Formula 1 to assert his position," he said.
Finally, Albon's current Williams teammate, Nicholas Latifi, also had his say. The Canadian shared a garage with Russell when the latter was still at the Grove team, and understands the difficulty of dealing with such a fast partner in the same team - he has been systematically overtaken by Alex in 2022. Besides the similarities between the two, Latifi pointed out the differences in driving style.
"Similarities?" questioned Latifi. "I mean, I don't need to mention that both are extremely fast drivers. When 'Alex' was announced as my teammate, I didn't create any illusions that he wouldn't be on pace right away, even though he missed a year [in F1]," he pointed out.
"I raced against him in 2018 as his teammate and I know how fast he was," he praised. "There are some obvious differences in the driving style here and there, which I knew going into the season having been his teammate before. I'm not going to comment on the secrets of the driving style because maybe they don't want to detail that! But no, it's been amazing to have had the two of them as teammates," he finished.