“I owe him a couple of beers”– Alex Albon on George Russell being ‘too supportive’ for his Williams move

“I owe him a couple of beers”– Alex Albon wants to treat George Russell for being incredibly supportive of his move to Williams.

Alex Albon will be replacing George Russell in Williams next year, and the latter is so happy about it that Albon thinks he owes Russell a couple of beers.

Albon said that Russell was very helpful in guiding him to a seat to Williams. He also informed that Williams’ administration also took their friendship into account before hiring the Thai-Briton race driver.

“Obviously George is a close friend of mine,” Albon said. “I would almost say [he was] too supportive, as I remember that the board guys saying like, ‘you know we can’t really take George’s opinion because he’s so supportive of you’, so it was very funny about that.”

“I said I owe him a couple of beers. Hopefully we’ll grab dinner and we can celebrate our moves together.”

A successful combination

Before going to Williams, Albon had his stint with Alpha Tauri and Red Bull before taking a year-long hiatus from live F1 action. Russell, who earlier had competed with Albon, thinks he deserves this chance.

“I’m extremely happy to see Alex back in Formula 1, I truly believe he deserves a chance on this grid,” Russell said. “I really think he is one of the best drivers, even though he had a really tough time at Red Bull.”

“Williams is absolutely the right place for him to go and develop. I’ve been there for the past three years, I know how the team are, I know how Jost [Capito] operates as well, and obviously, I know Alex really well as well.”

“So I’m sure they’ll be a successful combination,” he concluded. Meanwhile, Russell will be competing for Mercedes in 2022, replacing Valtteri Bottas, who will be driving for Alfa Romeo next year.

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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