2024 cannot end soon enough for Williams and Alex Albon, who have had a difficult campaign, with crashes, mechanical woes, and incidents on the track affecting them severely. That doesn’t mean Albon hasn’t driven well. It’s his luck that has let him down, but going by his recent revelation, he has done everything in his power to change that.
During a Williams segment, James Vowles asked Albon to share the measures taken by him to end his bad luck in races, which increased tenfold in the second half of the season. The Thai-British driver revealed that he had turned to religion. “I went to a temple,” he said.
A practicing Buddhist, Albon continued, “After simulator work, I came back home. There’s a monk who lives next door, who doesn’t look at all official.” Still, he visited and spoke to him, and also had his relatives from Thailand send over bracelets which were supposed to help him eliminate the bad luck that had been plaguing his races.
“They’re not fireproof,” he added about those bracelets, explaining why he couldn’t wear them while driving. The FIA does not allow accessories that aren’t fire-resistant. Vowles joked about this that they have left “no stone unturned” in overturning their bad form of late.
Sadly, it hasn’t worked well for them. Albon revealed that his visit to the temple in particular — which surprised his teammate Franco Colapinto — was right before the Las Vegas GP. Unfortunately, he had to retire from that race due to cooling issues.
In Qatar on Sunday, he faced more problems when a shunt with Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin damaged his car and caused his rearview mirror to fall off, resulting in chaos for everyone around.
Albon’s recent struggles
Since the Singapore GP in September, Albon has had to retire from three races out of a possible six. At the Sao Paulo GP, he couldn’t even start owing to the damages sustained to his FW46 owing to the treacherous conditions at Interlagos.
In the Grands Prix where the #23 driver started, he finished 16th in the US GP, and 15th in Qatar — last out of all the runners.
Alex Albon confirms he is out of the Brazilian GP due to the car damage sustained in his qualifying crash ❌ pic.twitter.com/5bGX6JmYEe
— Autosport (@autosport) November 3, 2024
This had put him under pressure, not just because of the high standards he had set for himself during his time at Williams, but because Colapinto was frequently in the running for points. That, however, has eased off. The Argentine has been going through a rough patch of his own of late, which has kept him far away from the top 10.
Overall, things look difficult for Albon, who will look to have much better luck (and a better car) in 2025.
