Williams to Welcome Alex Albon as Report Confirms F1 Homecoming in Blow to Mercedes

Silly season is picking up pace as the F1 driver market begins setting itself for the 2022 season. In the middle of all the commotion regarding Williams driver George Russell’s seat, there has been a new development. It is rumored that Alex Albon will be making his way back to the F1 grid!

According to ZiggoSports, Alex Albon will be in a Williams car next season. This comes in the light of Russell hinting at the possible Mercedes shift on Thursday.

Mercedes Formula E driver Nyck de Vries was also in contention for the Williams seat; it seems like the Thai driver has crushed de Vries’s hopes of stepping up to F1. With the market finally moving, it will finally settle the 2022 line grid; a new era with a new grid, apparently.

Williams seat was in the works for Albon

Christian Horner has ardently backed the former Red Bull driver. Horner had said, “I think Alex, he deserves a seat in Formula 1 next year and I think there’s quite a bit of interest in him for next year and we’ll do whatever we can to try and enable that.” 

Toto Wolff would have preferred his Mercedes-backed driver on the sister team. The Formula E driver, too, had his eyes set on the Williams seat. Regardless, he wouldn’t stop Albon from finding an opportunity at Williams. “I guess at the moment it revolves around Alex Albon who, as Christian says, deserves a seat; he is a really good kid, and he is probably the main protagonist in the… [musical] chairs.”

Read More: “People in Glass Houses…” – Marko Calls Out Mercedes’ Double-Standards After Tire-Blanket Complaint

However, the doors aren’t closed yet for Nyck; Wolff advocates for the driver’s F1 debut. “I would never block someone like Alex Albon; he’s a fantastic guy… if he has a chance in a Formula 1 car I think that’s the right thing to do. But equally, maybe Nyck has. So we’ll have to look at the open spaces at Alfa and at Williams and try to find a solution.”

Russell announcement on stand by

Russell’s media day interview has almost confirmed the thoughts in everybody’s minds. Confirming that he knows where he’ll be next year, Russell explained, “I was told] verbally, before Spa. As I said, I’m not going to sit here and lie and not say the truth; the truth is there’s nothing to announce but as I said, I’m aware of the situation of where I’ll be racing next year and I was informed just prior to Spa.”

Additionally, Wolff is due to make the announcement soon; promising to confirm the Mercedes lineup ahead of the next race at Monza. With Albon’s seat confirmed, there is only one plausible outcome for Russell.

While the hidden hints and decoding continue, it won’t be long before Russell’s Mercedes seat will be confirmed. Till then, we celebrate the return of an F1 favorite.

Watch this story: Top 5 Williams F1 Liveries of All-Time