Alex Albon spent his first full day with the Williams team at their Grove base, kicking off his preparations for the 2022 Formula One season. However, not everything went as to plan…

Alex Albon has completed his first official day with the Williams team ahead of the 2022 Formula One season, despite a minor mishap.

The Thai-British driver, who returns to the grid this season after a year on the sidelines conducting reserve and test duties for Red Bull, paid his first visit to the team’s Grove headquarters since signing with them in September.

Albon spent the day getting to know the people he’ll be working with.

“It was very exciting to meet who I’m going to be working with and who’s going to be building my car,” he said.

“It’s a very international team and there are a lot of names that I haven’t quite got in my head yet, but that will come!

“Other than that, I got to meet my side of the garage in terms of engineering and through the simulator work, we learnt how we do our business – what makes me click and what makes them click.”

Williams is still a “massive” team

Albon was taken aback by how large the Williams organization is, despite the fact that it is one of the smaller teams on the grid.

“I’ve had a tour of everywhere. Some people see Williams as an intimate team, but it’s still massive!” he explained.

“There’s still a lot of people here, from marketing to aero, the machine shop to accounting, it’s a big team.

“I’ve seen a lot of new faces and I’m not quite sure I’ll remember everyone’s names but it’s been great to meet everyone.”

Albon believes it will take some time for him to adjust to the outfit’s distant location in Oxfordshire, but the atmosphere has left him impressed.

“Firstly, it’s in the middle of the countryside! So I’ve got to get used to that,” the former Red Bull driver joked.

“It’s a really nice place, everything’s built under one roof more or less and you can tell that everything is quite close and as a consequence, I feel like everyone knows each other here which is really nice to see.

“Everyone’s very friendly and I’ve had a good time.”

A first day mishap for Albon

Albon did have a minor mishap with his keys, so the day didn’t go completely well.

“I already lost my car keys on the first day, but we did find them which was great,” he admitted.

“I thought I left them on the dinner tray so I was about to look into the garbage cans, but fortunately they were just down the side of the sofa in the simulator room, so a trip to the garbage was saved!”

Albon is embracing his return to full-time racing and is optimistic about the year ahead, despite the missing keys.

“It’s great to be back,” the 25-year-old added. “It will be my third year in F1, but I feel like I gained a lot of experience over my time.

“I’m not this rookie coming into it now, I know what I’m doing and what I want.

“It’s great to be able to work with this team who will listen to me, we’ll listen to each other and try and get the most out of this car.”

Albon joins the team to replace the Mercedes-bound George Russell, and will be joined by Nicholas Latifi, who is currently in his third season with the club.

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