“He is a full Williams driver”– Alex Albon’s hiring is not start of Red Bull-Williams connection claims Jost Capito

“He is a full Williams driver”– Alex Albon hiring is not the beginning of Red Bull and Williams connection claims Jost Capito.

Alex Albon has been announced to join Williams in 2022, where he will replace outgoing George Russell. However, before the hiring of Russell, before it there was a power struggle between Mercedes and Red Bull to convince Williams to sign their respective drivers.

In the end, Williams went for Albon, but they have put a disclaimer that this is not a start of a connection between Williams and Red Bull, as said by Jost Capito.

“He is a full Williams driver, with no contract with Red Bull,” Capito said. “What he has is [that] Red Bull Thailand is his personal sponsor all through his career. And he has the right to have personal sponsors.”

“So he will keep Red Bull as his personal sponsor. But it’s not a Red Bull-Williams connection.”

Only personal discussions

Capito has confessed that presently no technical discussions are happening with Albon, as he is still a Red Bull driver, and the conversations between the two parties are primarily personal.

Moreover, he doesn’t see any window before the end of the season, where his team can start preparing with Albon. Thus, only after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Williams will choose to get fully involved with Albon.

“He is still working for Red Bull, and he is in their simulator and doing work for them,” Capito said. “His contract ends at the end of the year, so when we are talking, it is more personal stuff. It’s not technical stuff, because we keep that very separate. That’s the right thing to do.”

“After the last race, that’s when they usually change it. The contract, of course, starts in January. But I think we will talk to Red Bull and say what can we do, does he stop working for you after the last race? Because he does a lot of sim and race preparation.

“They [may stop] after the last race, and then can get involved with us.”

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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