Alexander Albon

Alexander Albon, born on 23 March 1996 in London, is the son of English racer Nigel Albon and a Thai mother, and competes under the Thai flag. His very first word was reportedly “Ferrari,” inspired by his idol Michael Schumacher. He began karting at eight, won both the CIK-FIA World Cup and European Championship in 2010, and has been close friends with George Russell since their junior karting days.

Via Formula Renault, European Formula 3 and the GP3 Series (2016, runner-up to team-mate Charles Leclerc), Albon finished third in a close 2018 Formula 2 title fight decided at the Abu Dhabi finale, behind George Russell and Lando Norris, all three of whom moved up to Formula 1 together the following year.

He made his Formula 1 debut for Toro Rosso in 2019 and was promoted to Red Bull Racing mid-season, taking two podiums in 2020 (Tuscany and Bahrain) to become the first Thai driver ever on an F1 podium. Despite this, he was demoted at the end of 2020 in favour of Sergio Pérez and spent 2021 as test and reserve driver while also competing in the DTM. Of that difficult period he later said he had been “destroyed mentally.”

In 2022 he returned to Williams as George Russell’s successor and grew into a cornerstone of the team, which finished fifth in the Constructors’ Championship in 2025 alongside Carlos Sainz, its best result in years. Albon is a practising Buddhist, owns twelve cats among other pets with his family, and got engaged to Chinese professional golfer Lily He in January 2026.