Capito: Albon the “perfect fit” for Williams amid F1 recovery

After a disappointing point-less season in 2020, Williams secured eighth in the constructors’ championship ahead of Alfa Romeo and Haas.

George Russell’s starring performances, particularly his qualifying lap at the Belgian Grand Prix which led to Williams’ first podium since 2017, was a big factor in the team’s recovery.

With Russell getting the call up to Mercedes, Albon makes his return to F1 after a year out.

Capito is confident Albon is capable of taking the team forward as Russell did.

“With Alex, Alex and Nicky raced as teammates in ‘18, so they know and respect each other highly,” Capito said.

“I think Alex is the perfect fit for the team in the situation where the team is now. For George he had to move on, where he is, with what he has shown, he had to move on else he wouldn’t have been happy.

“For Alex it is a great second chance and I’m sure he’ll fit well in our environment, we’ll have a lot of fun with him, and I’m sure he will perform very well.”

Capito confirmed there’s no hierarchy at the team with both drivers getting equal treatment.

“Yeah of course it’s good for both,” he added. “I think for Alex it’s great to have this second chance to come back and lead the team to move forward. He doesn’t come in and say ‘I want to win races’, it is clear that he has to develop the team together with Nicky and us and all the engineers and everybody in Grove. He seems to enjoy this role. He works very well with Nicky. 

“We don’t have a number one and a number two, they are both treated with exactly the same and Nicky can put his mark there, there’s no doubt.” 

Despite not being a match for Russell in the previous two campaigns, Capito has been impressed with Latifi’s improvement.

“Nicholas has done a good job this year, when you look at the qualifying results, some do not show he could have been in a position where he could have out-qualified George [Russell], but it was situations where he was not in charge of,” he explained.

“And when you see the gaps were never really big, and of course it’s a big challenge to be the team-mate of George, and he did really well and improved a lot this season.

“I’m sure he can still improve as it is just his second season and the first season was really strange with Covid and a lot of new circuits this year so it was difficult for him again and he did a brilliant job based on that.”