{"id":862786,"date":"2026-08-18T18:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T18:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/862786\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T18:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T18:02:14","slug":"alex-albon-sticks-with-williams-despite-miserable-f1-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/862786\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Albon Sticks with Williams Despite Miserable F1 Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex Albon will extend his stay with Williams into the 2027 Formula 1 season, the team confirmed Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Albon joined Williams in 2022 after spending 2019-20 with Toro Rosso and Red Bull, and has become the longest-serving driver in the team\u2019s illustrious history.<\/p>\n

Williams has endured a dismal 2026 campaign, as new regulations have highlighted additional weaknesses within the team\u2019s structure, and its FW48 machine has been off the pace.<\/p>\n

Albon has scored points in just two of the 11 grands prix held so far this year while Williams occupies ninth in the Constructors\u2019 Championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, it\u2019s been a frustrating year so far, but it doesn\u2019t make me not believe in this team and its ambitions, and what I believe the team can achieve,\u201d Albon said.<\/p>\n

Albon\u2019s deal only covers 2027\u2014ostensibly giving both driver and team medium-term flexibility\u2014and he mentioned Williams\u2019 response to its woes as reason for committing for another year.<\/p>\n

\"F1Kym Illman\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Williams Team Principal James Vowles (left) and Alex Albon.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though it\u2019s been a tough year, the response of the team back at the factory, and the work that\u2019s been put in to understand our issues, has been huge,\u201d Albon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn many ways, it has felt like we\u2019ve needed this tough moment to really accelerate some of the aggressive plans to fix some core problems within the car that have plagued us for years. I haven\u2019t seen the team sink their teeth into something so aggressively in the way they have this year, so I really do believe we\u2019re going to find the reasons why we\u2019ve been going through these issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams boss James Vowles described Albon as \u201ca leader of this transformation project since day one\u201d and outlined that \u201cwe have plenty of unfinished business that we are determined to achieve.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlex is one of the best drivers on the grid and knows better than anyone the enormous improvements we have made in recent years\u2014re-signing him shows the belief we both have in the direction we are heading.\u201d<\/p>\n

Albon\u2019s commitment for 2027 will intensify the focus on Carlos Sainz\u2019s future with Williams.<\/p>\n

Sainz chose Williams over offers from Alpine and Audi to join for 2025 after his enforced Ferrari exit, and scored two podiums last year, but has cut a frustrated figure this year amid Williams\u2019 slump.\n<\/p>\n

\"Lettermark\"<\/p>\n

U.K.-based Phillip Horton started covering Grands Prix while still at university and swiftly deemed that writing about Formula 1 and the behind-the-scenes machinations was much more engaging than reading centuries-old novels. Degree gained, he went on to cover the sport full-time from 2014 and is as intrigued and excited by the destinations Formula 1 visits during its lengthy annual world tour as the racing itself. Phillip joined Autoweek in 2021 and while he has just about learned to spell in American English he has yet to find anywhere in America that makes a proper cup of tea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Albon will extend his stay with Williams into the 2027 Formula 1 season, the team confirmed Tuesday.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":862787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,782,300088,784,578,576,577,237154,1642,300087,273948,82,184740],"class_list":["post-862786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-1373b89a-7056-4e0c-ab93-3b6adcb16a1a","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-us","tag-shorttitle-alex-albon-sticks-with-williams-for-2027-season","tag-sponsored-false","tag-sports","tag-subsection-formula-one"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=862786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/862787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=862786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=862786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=862786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}