(Paris) Thai driver Alex Albon has announced that he will stay with Williams in 2023, while the imbroglio around the signing at Alpine of Oscar Piastri, another hope of Formula 1, remained unresolved on Wednesday.
Updated yesterday at 10:53 a.m.
“I understand Williams Racing has, with my consent, issued a press release this afternoon stating that I will be driving for them next year. That’s right and I signed a contract with Williams for 2023. I will drive for Williams next year,” Alex Albon tweeted on Wednesday.
He thus ironically paraphrases a tweet published Tuesday evening by the Australian Oscar Piastri denying the announcement made by the French F1 team Alpine according to which he had signed with them next season: “From what I understand, Alpine F1 has, without my consent, issued a press release at the end of the afternoon indicating that I was going to drive for them next year. This is false and I have not signed a contract with Alpine for 2023. I will not be a driver for Alpine next year, ”said the 21-year-old driver.
Williams is one of the teams which, according to unconfirmed reports, is in talks to sign Piastri, Formula 2 champion in 2021 and currently a reserve driver at Alpine and McLaren.
Williams also made no reference Wednesday to his other driver, Canadian Nicholas Latifi, whose contract expires at the end of this year.
The current confusion was caused by the announcement last week by German four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel that he would retire from F1 at the end of 2022. His Aston Martin team announced a few days later, and to everyone’s surprise, having concluded an agreement with the Spaniard Fernando Alonso, double world champion today at Alpine, to replace Vettel from next year.
This precipitated the decision of the French team to announce its replacement by Oscar Piastri when the latter seems to have entered into negotiations to sign for another team.
Alex Albon, 26, whose mother is Thai and father British, has been racing in F1 since 2019 and for Williams since this season. During his time at Red Bull in 2019/2020, he had signed two 3e places before being replaced in 2021 within the Austrian team by the Mexican Sergio Perez.
He then became a reserve driver at Red Bull, he then signed with Williams for 2022. He currently occupies the 19e championship place with 3 points.