Ex-Ferrari insider hails midfield F1 star: “There were lots of question marks”

Ex-Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley has praised Alex Albon for his strong start to the 2025 F1 season after there were “lots of question marks” about his form.

After being dropped by Red Bull at the end of 2020, Albon spent the following year on the sidelines before returning to F1 with Williams full-time.

Albon has slowly rebuilt his reputation at the Grove-based outfit.

However, question marks remained regarding his ultimate level of performance, given the identity of his previous teammates.

Nicholas Latifi and Logan Sargeant proved to be weak competition.

Immediately, Franco Colapinto proved to be a sterner test, leading to concerns about how good Albon is.

Albon has batted away any questions over his level in F1, out-performing new teammate Carlos Sainz.

Albon has scored 30 points in the opening six rounds, putting him an impressive eighth in the F1 drivers’ championship.

Smedley, who was Felipe Massa’s race engineer from 2006 to 2013, believes Albon has now silenced any critics.

“I also think it’s down to the fact that they’ve now got two very good drivers. Alex Albon, there were lots of question marks from the sidelines about ‘how good was Alex?’,” Smedley said on the F1 Nation Podcast.

“Because since he got demoted from the Red Bull team, how good were the drivers that he was put up against and how good were the drivers that he was put up against in Williams, especially at the start of his journey.

“That’s now been answered with Carlos, right? Alex is a very good driver, Alex has got his feet under the table. We know how good Carlos is, for me, Carlos is one of the best all-round drivers on the grid, he’s definitely a guy, in a top car, could win a world championship.”

Albon “in the form of his life”

Legendary F1 commentator Martin Brundle has also noticed Albon’s impressive performances in 2025.

Brundle described Albon as “in the form of his life” following the Miami Grand Prix.

Albon finished fifth in Miami, beating Kimi Antonelli, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.

It meant that Williams had the fourth-fastest car on merit in Miami.

Williams have scored 37 points in the opening six rounds, making it their best start to a year since 2017.