Big Alex Albon contract release rumour with two-team approach made

Alex Albon is reportedly keen to break free from his Williams contract, with two teams unsuccessful in efforts to make it happen.

Albon’s Formula 1 career has been quite the roller coaster ride, the Thai driver joining Toro Rosso for 2019 before being promoted to Red Bull halfway through that season and then dropping off the grid at the end of 2020 after struggling alongside Max Verstappen.

Albon has since found stability in Williams, impressing after returning to the F1 grid with the Grove outfit in 2022, but could he now be set for a fresh big F1 career move?

Two teams reportedly attempted Alex Albon contract buyout

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Albon signed a new multi-year contract with Williams in 2022, widely reported to run until at least the end of 2024 with ESPN stating that the agreement keeps him with Williams until 2025.

However, they report that Albon is not committed to seeing out those terms and instead wants to “free himself” of that Williams contract, with two unnamed teams making unsuccessful attempts to make him a part of their 2023 line-ups.

But with “several” teams monitoring this situation, Albon is branded a “big part of the puzzle” when it comes to the driver market in F1 2024.

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Albon was quite literally the driving force behind Williams’ improvement in 2023, scoring 27 of their 28 points as they recorded a P7 finish in the Constructors’ Championship, their best result since 2017.

P7 finishes in Montreal and Monza were the crowning achievements for Albon and his team, Albon explaining that no points came easy during the campaign, with Melbourne – where Albon crashed out while running comfortably inside the points – picked out as the only missed opportunity,

“I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved at the team,” Albon told media including PlanetF1.com. “I think about the races that we’ve scored points in and we haven’t had really a smooth race where we’ve just gone, ‘Oh, that was nice.’

“I wish we had more of them. But unfortunately, a lot of them are holding up a bunch of cars behind us, which is what we’ve become renowned for.

“The car has improved a lot from last year, we’re going into every weekend feeling like there’s a chance to score points. But even in that case, our race pace is not always that great and yet we still come away with good points.

“I have to say that in reflection, I’ve had a lot of fun moments from this year and I think it also just speaks to the fact that I think Melbourne was the only race where I felt like I missed an opportunity to score points. But every other race we’ve done this year, when there’s been a chance, we’ve done it and I think that’s been the main difference I guess to our rivals.”

Albon will continue to have Logan Sargeant as his team-mate for F1 2024, the grid unchanged in its entirety from the final race of 2023.

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