Autosport Top 50 of 2024: #39 Alex Albon

“Messy” is how Alex Albon sums up his third season with Williams.

Issues got here from either side; his crashes in Melbourne and Brazil have been awkward since they led to missed races (in Australia for Logan Sargeant), however Williams’s car-build points additionally meant he was competing with a long-hidden weight penalty and reliability stored undoing him too.

Albon was glorious in qualifying, reaching Q3 greater than in 2023 (eight vs seven) and with 0.3s on common in hand over each team-mates. Albon additionally shone when Williams was on kind. Seventh in Baku was the spotlight, together with Monaco and an unrewarded Canada show.

The very best F1 overtake of the 12 months?

The System 1 historical past books have Alex Albon’s 2024 Canadian Grand Prix ending with a retirement – the Williams driver fully innocent in being taken out in Carlos Sainz’s spin forward. However ‘DNF’ could be higher off standing for the pleasant, naughty, finely-judged double-pass he’d produced earlier on Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon.

Whereas they have been lapping on carrying intermediates mid-way by this wet-dry thriller, Albon acquired a run on then-RB driver Ricciardo heading down Montreal’s again straight. He raced up behind and alongside it in the direction of the top of the lengthy acceleration zone, with Ocon’s Alpine head additionally offering a tow.

When Ricciardo braked as he textbook defended the within and with Ocon remaining on the racing line, Albon braked later than each, releasing the pedal to swing proper and get alongside Ocon having threaded his FW46 in entrance of Ricciardo.

He then edged onto the within kerb of the monitor’s last chicane sequence – with Ocon’s compliance and extra closely worn inters right here needing acknowledgement – and at last powered away to seal the transfer.

It was so effectively judged, with Ricciardo later joking on Instagram, “pull a stunt like that once more and we’re executed”.