Alex Albon says he is ready to be more firm with his requests at Williams as he has a better picture of what he wants following two years of Formula 1 experience.

The Red Bull driver lost his seat to Sergio Perez at the end of 2020 although he was retained as reserve last year, and then was signed by Williams as a replacement for George Russell. After his first day working at the Williams factory, Albon — who will retain Red Bull links — says his new team will trust him given his previous spells at both Red Bull and Toro Rosso.

“It’s great to be back,” Albon said. “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 was at Williams’ Grove, UK headquarters in September last year when his move was confirmed, but this week got a full factory tour before beginning simulator work and admits he is impressed by the scale of the Williams setup.

“It was very exciting to meet who I’m going to be working with and who’s going to be building my car. 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 learned how we do our business — what makes me click and what makes them click.

“I’ve had a tour of everywhere. Some people see Williams as an intimate team, but it’s still massive! There’s still a lot of people here, from marketing to aero, the machine shop to accounting — it’s a big team.”