Alex Albon Thinks "Boring" Race to Blame for Radio Message Drama in Japan

Nelson Espinal | Apr 6, 2025

Nov 21, 2024; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Williams Racing driver Alex Albon (23) during practice for the Las Vegas Grand Prix at Las Vegas Circuit. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images / Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

Alex Albon managed to score points for the Williams team once again, finishing in P9 at the Japanese Grand Prix, although the race was far from smooth.

Over the radio, Albon had several intense messages with his engineer about gear shift problems.

"These shifts are so bad, what have we done to them," Albon said over the radio.

The engineer followed up with questions for specifics to which Albon responded: "Yeah, the same! The same I've been talking about all the time."

At another point in the race, Albon told the team: "Honestly, you guys make absolutely no sense."

At the end of the race, the Williams driver attempted to downplay the drama surrounding the radio messages.

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 "I think it was a boring race so they kept using my radio message," he told the media.

"We've been experimenting with shift settings all weekend, and we landed on something we were quite happy with."

Alex Albon on radio message, not very happy with his team 👀 pic.twitter.com/PLo1feChxu

— Fxe. (@ultronymous) April 6, 2025

"I think in the end it didn't actually help us in qualifying, it didn't feel that good in the race so we reverted."

Albon was not only frustrated with the gear shifts; he was also unhappy about some strategic decisions concerning the timing of pit stops during the race.

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"And then in terms of strategy, I didn't feel like we needed to lose time behind Max because he overtook us, we lost about a second and a half to Isack in that process and then we boxed immediately after he overtook me," Albon said.

"I'm sure they'll show me why, maybe, I would have come out behind another car, but in the moment it felt like we wasted a second and a half."

"Yeah, obviously, if we could have pitted the same lap as Ollie and pitted the lap before, we wouldn't have had the issue at all.

3 for 3 in the points 🥰 どうも ありがとう ございます Japan! 🇯🇵 Another amazing result, big effort @WilliamsRacing !

เก็บคะแนนไปได้ 3 สนามเต็ม จาก 3 การแข่งขัน ขอบคุณมากๆนะครับ 🇯🇵 เป็นอีกครั้งที่มีผลการแข่งขันที่เยี่ยมยอด และเป็นผลจากการทำงานอย่างหนักของทุกคนในทีม… pic.twitter.com/IMZae9YBgm

— Alex Albon (@alex_albon) April 6, 2025

"It was more because we were, I guess in my head I'm always racing the car in front, not the car behind."

"I don't want to lose time to Isaac and I think after the pit stops he was about five and a half seconds in front, six seconds in front and we got it back to three and a half, but he just lost out."

Albon's start to the season has been very impressive, out-qualifying his seasoned teammate, Carlos Sainz, while consistently maximizing the car's performance.

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Given that he was able to score points despite the challenges, Albon is leaving Japan feeling pleased.

"I think the car didn't feel that easy to drive this weekend."

"But we still scored points and that just shows you, even on our days that we're not that optimal, we're able to still score some points, so yeah, very happy."

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