Why Albon's first day at Williams almost ended in garbage search

Albon was signed as George Russell’s replacement for this season with the latter making the move up to Mercedes.

The Thai driver spent last season on the sidelines after being dropped by Red Bull in favour of Sergio Perez at the end of 2020.

As preparations for the new season get underway, Albon was at Williams’ factory in Grove for the first time as an official driver.

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

His first official visit didn’t entirely go to plan as he lost his car keys.

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

“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 says he’s looking forward to working with a team ‘that will listen to him’.

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