Technical approach and finding the zone

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Alex Albon reaches a major milestone in twenty twenty six when he becomes the driver with the most race starts in Williams history. Williams gave me my opportunity to get back onto the formula one grid. I don't think a lot of teams would have taken that risk. I would love to stay. I think that for me it's unfinished business . Of course it would be lovely to win races and score podiums and I have that desire that my time will come again. That hope is with Williams Here on F one Beyond the Grid with me Tom Clarkson. Alex tells me what that Williams record means to him and how he's changed on and off the track since joining the team back in twenty twenty two . We also talk about Alex's relationship with teammate Carlos Sins and where the Williams have reset their targets after a disappointing start to the new era of Formula One. We're in this position more because we were taking a lot of risks. We want to be thinking outside the box and thinking as far ahead as we can and think realistically we bit off more than we can shoot. We were maybe too ambitious Alex, great have you on the show again? How are you? Very good, thank you. Not too bad. But we're in Monaco, so nice . Home race, very relax ed. I was thinking, this is actually a good space to have an apartment. Like this is bigger than most apartments. This is bigger than I might inquire how much the space is to rent and how I'm gonna rent this place and I could lease it out to Former One. Now, that's a business plan. A nice little side hustle for you right there. You know, while we're talking Monaco, you know how it normally clashes with the Indie five hundred this year? It clashes with American event , the U. S. Open Golf where your fiance Lily is competing . It's in California home tournament for her too. Yeah, but no sleep for Alex Album this weekend if you're going to be watching her hole by hole, right? Yeah That's gonna be tricky. I will normally so she will wake up around three PM hour time, more or less . That's pretty much how our relationship was for six, seven years now. So she wakes up around three o'clock and then she'll pretty much start playing around the time that I'm having dinner and then I'll watch maybe the first four or five holes and then I do have to sleep or not. I love her, but I do not sleep on a serious note, does it help having a professional sports person as your other half? Because you understand the pressures and yes. I think what I realized growing up and spending time with more and more people , it's interesting to see how you know people that have come through some sort of sportsy background when they can really empathize with the sacrifices and the hardships, the commitment that it takes to do whatever you're doing. And that can be not in a bad way, but you can notice people who don't know what that is and it can almost be confusing in many ways to people that but they're they have no they have no fun. They're just these kind of born and bred this is all they care about kind of thing. But with Lily, of course, she's very much on a very similar path to me. It's all we've grown up doing. And it helps a lot. I think in just general live, general conversations when we're having our lows, having our highs, whatever it may be , you have a sounding board that resonates very closely to you. So it is very very lucky to have that. Congratulations on the engagement, by the way. Thank you. Have you come up with a date for the big deal? I won't repeat it, but I have. We're pushing on just like Formula One . Updates and upgrades are coming every week. So yeah, we 're forced to ahead. Look, while we're talking marriages, can we talk about you and Williams because I'm married. Well, you've been with the team since twenty twenty two. Yes. And the upcoming Spanish Grand Prix is going to be race number ninety six for you for the team , which is going to be more than any other driver in their history . How does that make you feel? It doesn't feel it doesn't feel fair first of all because we do so many races nowadays . We have something very special coming up for I believe it's Spain as I peer over to my shoulders, managers just absolutely focus on not that . Yes, so we are focused on something pretty cool. I won't give away too much, but I am surpassing Nigel Nigel . Nigel Rancor for this milestone . And we had him in the garbage in Miami. I think he lives out in Florida or has for years for years . I had him around the garage with his family and he's so nice. He's honestly one of the kindest . He really appreciated us spending time with him, Carlos and me to be fair. And it was kind of strange because it's like no we're the ones that want to spend time with you kind of thing . But he was very excited. We got his kids in the car and always grandkids in the car yeah, it was it was very cool, very cool. I can guess what you're going to do in Spain. You're going to grow a mustache, aren't you? Yay . It's going to be a bushy one. I've got about what is it? I've got a week to grow a massage. I can tell you right now these genetics do not grow massage in a week. But I tell you what this does show, Alex, it does show longevity and commitment from you to the team. I guess both ways actually. It does. You know, you think about it that Williams gave me my opportunity back in twenty twenty two to get back onto the formula one grid. I don't think a lot of teams would have taken that risk, you know, considering I did have a tough final year at Red Bull . And then throughout these how many years is that now? I should know, but five years. Just being able to align obviously every year we've grown as a team , we've got better and better. Clearly this year has been a bit more of a struggle . But being honest with you, I really do enjoy racing for this team. The board members involved in Doriton and everyone over in the States and the UK . It's a very friendly place and very personable people and I really enjoy their time. Do you think you are now the archetypal Williams driver ? Do you think that was probably part of the transition of us going forward in terms of I spent one year without JV. So it was, you know, back then it was Yost Capita, and we were just starting this turnover. I think that's really when Doriton were investing heavily within Williams and each year we've gone through, you see the factory now, you see all the buildings and the technology coming through, the machines or whatever it may be . You see all the personnel coming through. We've increased size massively since when I first joined. It is really, really impressive. How different is the atmosphere at Williams now compared to twenty two? Do you feel there's an inner confidence now that there wasn't there? Yeah Yeah,. I remember distinctively my first couple of weeks visiting the factory in twenty twenty two. And there was so many things where it was like you came from a time at Red Bull where there was clearly a very winning mentality going on. And then when you go to Williams , it wasn't the people within the factory that you felt , you know , weren't good enough. It was purely the culture, the confidence within the team that was almost like they had a very tough few years and each year, I think at that point they were going backwards . And there was that, you know, just that it's that feeling just like any single human would feel if they were, you know, feeling like they were going backwards, it was just a bit of a grind and seem that I see now . What's funny is you know we are on the back foot this year. There's no secret no we are at the moment the ninth team . But we've been the ninth team in twenty twenty two, twenty twenty three , but that desire to be like this is not why we belong. We don't belong here. We belong back to where we were last year, at least this kind of P five in the Constructors championship is there. There's determination to get back as quickly as we can. That's a completely different mindset if you think about it to what it was like when I was first there. But do you understand why you're where you are now ? As in why we're on the back foot this year? Yeah, yeah, I do. And if you actually look at it, I think we're in this position more for completely different reasons than we were a few years ago. We're in this position more because we were taking a lot of risks . We want to be thinking outside the box and thinking as far ahead as we can. And I think realistically , what ended up happening were we bit off more than we can chew so there were some areas within the factory within the team that we didn't foresee and we created bott lenecks, procedural things that just , especially when you change your regulation and there's so much to do , it was a lot easier before when we were just refining the car and just making a car faster and faster, this was a lot more deep into development phases. We were late. We pushed things right as late as we could, and that just put us to where we are. So it's not for the same reasons of We're just slow. It was actually more the opposite of we were maybe too ambitious. Given everything you've just said and the recruitment drive that the team is on at the moment, there's a recent signing that I think sounds really significant and that's Pierce Thin who was in charge of the factory at McLaren you know he won the most recent constructors championship in Formula One and he's now joining Williams in a couple of months time. That strikes me as quite a big quite a big shout from Williams given the reasons you've just stated for the problems this year. It is. If you strip everything away and you just look at what do the top four teams do better than everyone else, their turnover speeds, the fact that they're bringing upgrades almost every race. Even if it's a small upgrade , how quickly they can convert CFD and wind tunnel production into physical parts , their turnover extremely quick and it's one of the big things that separate midfield teams to the top teams and we realize you know, I think it's no secret few. A years ago we were back on the Excel spreadsheets and whatnot and we were quite far behind and we've got this huge gap to bridge bridge to gap, gap to bridge . And so we'll do both And that's one of the areas that we've noticed consistently and kind of touching on a new regulation change. That's the one of the areas where we saw ourselves most exposed. So right and what about ext ricating yourselves from the hole at the start of the year? We all know that the car was overweight . I mean overweight in itself is a function of being late, you know, it's being slow because one of the quickest things to gain back time and get back on target is to not crash test, to not refine, to just get parts in the car as quick as you can and miss out that weight saving opportunity phase of the car build. So it all kind of leads a lot of it to efficiency . But how much can you recover this year given the processes that you now have back in growth? I'm fairly confident we can get back on way by I don't want to say when but I think we 've got a clear plan. You could imagine that it's at one of the very top priority lists of the car. And if you're on the weight limit, is the performance there? Is P five in the Constructors championship still doable? We have a calculation of where we know our car would be if it was on the weight limit. That's not to say that everyone is on the weight limit, they aren't. But can you share that ? No, but I would say that clearly the results aren't where they would be . We'd be much more in the points than we are now . The good thing is you've seen maybe the last few races an uptick in performance from the team and you know there are some upgrades happening on the car but a lot of that is the weight getting stripped out . how And much of a setback was the groundhold moment that you had in Montreal? Because I mean, it actually cost a lot of money. The amount of damage that was done. That was an engine gearbox. I've heard like a million dollars being floated around. I mean , in the budget era, that's budget cap a is maybe quite overlooked in terms of didn't matter too much if you banged a wheel too, lost a front wing or two previously and now especially being the first year of this regulation change, how much money that takes to invest in the car , you don't want to be spending out on crash parts. So yeah, it's not fun . I don't think the insurance covers groundhogs so yet . This episode is sponsored by Saley . I think one of the most satisfying feelings before any trip is knowing you've already sorted all the boring stuff before you leave home . Passport packed, boarding pass downloaded, hotel booked. Because once you land somewhere, the last thing you want is another problem to solve, like figuring out how you're going to get online, and that's why I use Sali. 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Join the thousands of heat pump owners feeling warm and fuzzy. I've lived here twenty years, I ain't moving, so I thought better future proof me home. We started a trend. The Ell Street's applying for the government grant now. With the energy is saves. I don't know what's better off. The planet or my wallet. I'm an idiyot little buckwheorm, says it's three times more efficient than our old boiler. Feel all warm and fuzzy inside with a seven and a half thousand pound government grant towards your heat pump at gov dot uk slash clean energy. Eligibility Criteria applies the website to for detail s . We've discussed the team and how it's getting back on track. Let's discuss you now, Alex . The driver silly season is up and running. We've just had Chaulecler announcing a new contract at Ferrari. Where are you at with Williams? Do you want to stay? I mean, James Vales has said he wants you and Carlos for the future is you on the same page ? I would love to stay. I think that for me it's I've been a part of this journey for before JB in fact and you know I've been feeling like maybe it's true or not, but I've been a contribution to a lot of the to part of the success of the team . And I want to see it through. I want to see where we get to. I feel like there's unfinished business where we are and this year was actually tough many ways in many ways, even just mentally because you kind of you're seeing this forwards momentum going through and now we're not that we've we're slightly having to reset kind of where our trajectory curve is, but in a way, yes, you know there's areas that we realized, okay, well this is going to take a couple more years than we would like, let's say. And so you, you know, you as much as you want to immediately get a pen to paper, you do want to see where and how the team evolve. And I think for me it's one hundred percent, as I said before, I love I love the board. I love JV I think the team is in a great place. So I want to see this see this work. James has said twenty thirty is when he wants to see Williams challenging for world championships . First of all, do you think that date is doable ? Yeah, I would have said, you know, previous to the end of last year , my eyes were kind of twenty eight, twenty nine twenty eight really it was kind of like I thought if we keep going it's not too long away . I think from this year it's kind of gone okay you know it's supposed to likely be more twenty thirty I think that's realist ic. I think one thing about JV is he is honest and he doesn't try to set unrealistic targets. I do think that twenty thirty is a I haven't spoke to me about it, but I do I believe it's a good number yet. And he has said that Joan Carlos is the best driver lineup in Formula One. You're now eighteen months into that relationship . How are you rubbing along? Yeah, great. I think we are still in a very similar place to the first week we spent together. There's no difference in our openness and most probably more than anything we've realized we were very open before in terms of what do we need to do to get this team to go for wards? And then this year being on that back foot, there's been even more focus. I'd say there's been a huge amount of driver input back to the factory and yeah, just between us trying to understand how to make this car go faster. So I like the way that we have this partnership. I'm not sure it's that common across teams to have two drivers with experience that understand the picture of what the team needs or what team needs to get to go forwards. Not to say that young drivers are going to just focus on themselves, but it's nice that we can have these weekends even for example , FP One's where we can do completely different things across cars to focus on different philosophies and see if things can work out . Neither car really focusing on pure performance, just trying to figure out what the window is of the car and then kind of come back together, right? I could imagine there are a lot of midfield teams that wouldn't do that. Do you think that dynamic would change if you were fighting for podiums and wins? What sort of person I think it would, but we're not there yet . So that's a problem to have later on. And Carlos as a teammate, has he made you a better driver? Do you look at his data, his telemetry and think, okay, I do. I would say that I look at it. I don't I think you would say the same to me. There's nothing that I see that's, you know, you feel like you cannot do or whatever. We kind of look at each other, we bounce off each other. I think he's taken to these new regulations well as well. So it's been helpful for me to see his data . What does he do especially well in a racing car? I would say that his strongest asset is actually his feedback and his communication. It's actually the outer car work that he does. That's very good. I think he's he speaks well, he has great insight , he has an engineering brain on him . I think that's really important. Are you quite similar? We are similar for sure. I think that we both attack or we go into a weekend and prepare for a weekend in a very similar way. Maybe that's also why we get on well. Yeah. Well, beginning of next year , you'll be starting your one hundred fiftieth Grand Prix . Yeah . It's seems a lot, doesn't it? I know I always think of it like I'm thirty now. I turned thirty in between China and Japan. Your fourth decade. Wow. Yeah . A thirty is crazy . Because if I think I'm way over the average age now , you're an old boy now. Although Jackie Stewart would tell you you are absolutely at your prime at thirty as a single driver. And actually JV says the same thing , but I'm glad Checko and Valtteri joined the grid together A bit longer. Otherwise it would be Fernando, we need you . Everyone , every it's helped my ego. Yeah . Can we explore how you think you've changed as a driver over the last eight years? I think if I split it between the two, so if I go just purely driver pure technique wise, my call it default. My driver default is the same . So I drive the same way I have the same technique same style . Are you faster now? I've noticed my weaknesses more, so I know the corners that I need to work on. There's obviously a consistent pattern that you kind of go through . I know the tyres much better. I know how to manage the tyres and a race much, much better. I know when to push. I think that's the biggest difference between when you start to where I am now is that balance of saving, saving and then when you start picking up that pace and start going for it. On a technical level, I understand the cars better clearly and I pretty much know and I know all the things we can do to the car and then in terms of a personable level, I'd say there's still the racing side, which is mostly the area that I think I've become better at is the being that team person, that point of contact of moving the team or explaining to the team what I needed from them from the car . What do we need to go back to the factory and work on? What are these specific areas that we need to focus on? Having better communication basically and knowing who I need to speak to to get what I want from the car, from the team . And then there's the outside kind of non racing side, but it still applies is me as a human is I'm more confident now, more confident and comfortable in my own skin as well . Not trying to be something I'm not more relaxed as well in weekends. Do you think you being thrust into that team leadership role, you know, when you had Logan Sergeant when you had Nicholas Tatifi as your teammate. Were you ready for that? And is that what helped create the person that you've just described I think it definitely was a part of it. I think it was more an element of maturity as well . I think that there's a big difference mentally that changes when you are driving to survive and then driving to not survive basically . And the attitude is that self confidence within within you that's kind of like I'm okay I don't need it's not all about me and it's kind of what I was saying before around, you know, having that two experienced drivers in the midfield. And it's more about what do we need as a team to go forwards? How do we get away from these P twelve's and P thirteen's and how do we start moving into the points? And there's, I guess, a human reaction towards I belong here and I don't need to prove myself . And so you do think far more big picture and that kind of narrow minded approach of in it for myself goes away . So that's also really the biggest difference. So when you were finishing in the points in what seven of the opening eight races last year ? Yeah , that was peak Alex. That was it was peak Alex for sure in many ways . Things were clicking and you're just relaxed. I think there's an element of the car's goods. You're just in that rhythm. It's hard to explain, but there's none of this kind of like, I gotta do this . Even it sounds really silly, but this is maybe going a little bit off subject, but you know how different it is to be able to go into Q one and doesn't have to be the perfect lap to get through. You can play around with your tools, you can play around with the front wing, you can play around with your outlap because it doesn't really matter . You're still going to go through the mentality of I can't adjust too much and I need to make sure my outlap's perfect. And it's a bit of a weird mentality, but sometimes harder to take risks when you're on the back foot when you know the car's not good enough for Q two. So it is a shift in many ways and I think it just makes you more relaxed. You know you've got a good car bike. And do you think you would deal with a team like Red Bull differently now? The Alex, the version of you now would deal with that opportunity differently now? You for sure, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, like deal with hell. I look at myself . Yeah , yeah. I look at myself back when I was in Red Bull to where I am now, and I think I am very, very different . I still have the kind of my core is still the same, but how I can deal with things and the biggest thing is get myself out of things . You know, if I'm in a tight spot or whatever and things aren't clicking, how do I get myself out of them? That's the biggest thing. When I was at Red Bull, with that maturity and the lack of fundamental engineering knowledge, it was hard to know why it was difficult. What do you know now that you wish you had known in twenty nineteen when you started a formula ? It's so technically boring . There are things you can do with the car like things which I most probably didn't understand back then but the way you can set up the car and play around with it there's a lot you can do basically and I think that sometimes I was not giving the exact feedback that I should have been giving because back then it was just it's doing this, it's doing that. I wasn't in the detail of understanding why. I think some drivers don't like that though. So to explain it,'s like some drivers are just quick. There's not really a thought behind it. They just drive anything they get given. That's great. And that's actually a nice thing to have. If I can understand what makes the car click and why is it doing that? If I can understand that, I can also get the laptop out of it. It's almost like okay that's I need to understand the language of the car. Once I get that, then I can unlock it . And so back then at Red Bull, I would say I was far from that. But that's experience. That surely every young driver is the same, even Max Verstappen, the twenty sixteen version of Max Verstappen surely was the same. Exactly that. You can even say you sit with Kimmy this year. There's that learning part of it where you're just driving and I think as a mentality you're kind of just reacting to whatever you get you have underneath you. Once you start going away from reacting to being proactive and being able to say I want the car to do this, I need this rather than this is what we've got , you know, can you drive around these issues or these issues? You gain that tone . 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Visit bitdefender dot com to learn more about how Bitdefender supports Ferrari through cybersecurity built on trust and how you can make your digital life safer. Join the thousands of heat pump owners feeling warm and fuzzy. I've lived here twenty years, I ain't moving, so I fought better future proof me home. We started a trend, the Al Street supplying for the government grant now. With the energy it saves I don't know what's better off the planet or my wallet. Our nedy little bookworm says it's three times more efficient than our old boiler feel warm and fuzzy inside with a seven point five thousand pound government grant towards your heat pump at go v. UK slash clean energy. Eligibility Criteria applies the website for details I think there are three phases to an F one driver just from years of observing. One is the reacting phase that you talk about when you first come in, you just come in and do it . And you're often very successful at that because you don't overthink it. Then you've been around phase two is you've been around for a while, suddenly you realize the privileged position you're in and you start to one driver start to overthink it and sometimes it doesn't come so easy . And then you get into phase three , which I feel where you are, where suddenly you understand it all now and there's less pressure and then it ramps up again. So you sort of bookended by hyperform ances with a slightly you're onto something that I think every driver, if you look at it, they've kind of gone through that phase. You look at even like a Max or George , a Charles now, Orlando now, and it's hard to see it from the outside , but I really do believe everyone's just getting better and better. It might not be pure lap time and pure driving, but if you understand the cars more you understand the tyres more you, understand the tracks more you understand, how these things work more . You become faster and faster. What about incremental gains from a driving perspective, right? You've talked about all the tools you have in the car . How hard do you think about things that you can do? And something I'm not real it's a real balance. Kind of so like Nico Rosberg, twenty sixteen, didn't paint his helmet because he was going to save eighty grams of weight high up in the car. He gave up cycling because he wanted to get rid of the leg muscle to save weight. You know, that's the sort of I think Niko was extremely yes . But do you think constantly about where you can make gains like that . Or are you at the point now where I've got nothing more in that department? This is me . I think every driver will have this. I have there's a relentless desire to be better . And I think a lot of drivers in different ways are motivated by multiple ways. I think I saw Jensen, you did a podcast with Jensen and talking about I think every driver has a level of insecurity that drives them forward that because you don't feel like are you the best? Can you be the best? I'll do everything to be the best and you go through and you look at every single part of you to improve . For me, recently in the last two years, a lot of that's been I feel better driving a lot of different things. Like I think Max does that naturally driving GT three cars and whatnot. For me, a lot of it spent driving different cars. I did some rallying up in Seattle the other day, driving random cars around Sonoma, going around in Go Karts, just doing everything, feeling like just driving and getting that that feeling is really important. The other side of it though is kind of with balance it really is balance is overthinking the sport and just driving. Like I think a lot of it is there's all these things you can focus on and do to try to improve, but then once you get to the race track itself, you need to disconnect and just kind of be in that quietness and just, you know, this is it now. You've done all that prep work, you've done all the all the whatever you feel like you need to do. And once you're there, it's just to find details of driving the car as quickly as you can. Day Hmillan says the best race he ever drove Suzuka ninety four, he wasn't thinking it was just happening. Yeah . It's the sweet spot. It's the sweet spot. And I'll say this, I think that this year it's been much harder to be in that area mentally because so much more going on to the cars this year than there were like you can't disengage in the way that you want to. You have been taught at an early age to just drive corners as quickly as you can, but there's a layer this year that's different. And I'm not saying this in a bad way. I'm not trying to say the regulations are unique, but you can do different things which you never did before to go faster. So there's this thing in the back which is the battery that you can manipulate and it's interesting because just driving, being in that quiet space can sometimes be efficient . And so for me, especially the lot of work in a simulator is spent driving to try to make that bit feel quiet so that it's not dominating your thought s as you're going around a lap and that will come with experience. The more exactly that, like even from Melbourne to now, your mind quietens down a lot, at least for me. And I think I'm excited to compare for example, I just did the SIMp pre for Monaco and the Net. I moved on to do Barcelona. We don't go back to the UK in between the two race at least I don't. And suddenly all the deployment comes in and you're like, Oh yeah, forgot about this. Need to go back to that style of driving again . It's very interesting. In terms of getting in the zone , is that circuit dependent? Do you believe that drivers have favorite circuits? Favourite corners even? Yes . And I think that when you're really feeling like you're driving at your very best, it's very similar to what Damon says for me you just know , like that corner can't explain it, but I just know I know that's how you take that corner. I know how you take this corner. There are some corners which naturally you're like I'll try this, I'll try that. Does this work? Yeah, it's okay but okay I'm gonna try a little bit of this. Okay, can my tools help me? Can we help with the setup? Okay , you know, I need to break a bit later here. To minutes later here. Just these they're small. And we do them a lot, but it's just these little small things and it's like it's not I do this kind of thing and for me when I do this I feel tell me a corner where you just do this so I can go and stand there and watch you . Okay, good questions. Anyway, even if it's one we've already done, I'm trying to think of one that we can go to soon. What's after Barcelona? Austria, Silver Silverstone is a great one. Silverstone. What is give me an do it corner for Alex? Turn nine. It's like cops. Super high speed. That's cops. Cops. So like cops , you can go in there and you spend a couple of laps understanding the winds. Once you understand what the wind's doing, you just do it, you just do it. Every driver has it. I'm sure of it. Every driver has corners where no teammate can ever beat them because they just they're just in that. And cops this might sound like a silly question, but given that footballers have a favored foot tennis player's favorite, you know, backhand for , do you prefer turning length ? All right . I did it. Are you better turning legacy? Alright, I asked the team to do a statistic for me on it just to see if I did have a preference but I don't. You don't have a preference? No, no. Is that a silly question? No, it's not. I've realized like I think I'm slightly better at optimizing the track when it turns right. So I can get, you know, you kind of get your tummy, you got your white line and then you got the grass and when I turn right, generally speaking, I can get the ties overhanging on the tarmac on the white line, but not in the grass. That's me turning right. And then when I turn left, I'll watch it onboard and FP one and I'll be like there's a bit the left hand is there's a little bit there'll be a little bit of this . I think it's right hand . But normally I've even I mean I still go pretty well there but yes, I think there's a bit there. That's so interesting. The final final topic I just wanted to ask you about was