The Albon Era: What's Changed in 100 Races?

Race 1 vs Race 100 – what’s changed since Alex's Williams debut?

Published

29 JUL 2026

Est. reading time

4 min

It’s Sunday 20th March 2022 and Alex Albon is lining up on the grid in Bahrain after a year out of the sport. It’s his Atlassian Williams F1 Team debut, three days shy of his 26th birthday.

Fast forward four and a half years and Albono has just taken the chequered flag on race start number 100 for the team, becoming the first driver to reach triple digits in our history.

But what was happening in March 2022 compared to July 2026? Let’s take a look…

Box Office

The Batman – Matt Reeves’ reboot of the franchise – was thrilling viewers in UK cinemas at the time of Alex’s Williams debut, doing so for the third of four consecutive weekends.

By race 100, the film world was buzzing about Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. With a runtime of 2 hours and 53 minutes, if you started it alongside the Hungarian GP, it would still have 74 minutes left to run by the time the chequered flag fell.

Alex ahead of race 1 in Bahrain

UK No.1 Song

Top of the Official UK Singles Chart on 20 March 2022 was Starlight by Dave, enjoying its second of four weeks at No. 1. Fast forward to the weekend just gone, and Rein Me In by Sam Fender and Olivia Dean had just claimed its 18th week at the top of the charts.

In the Official Albums Chart, it was Rex Orange County’s Who Cares? topping proceedings in March 2022, while Gracie Abrams’ Daughter From Hell had just debuted at No. 1 by the time of the 2026 Hungarian GP.

Podium

No drivers featured on both the podium from Alex’s first race and the podium from his 100th. It was a Ferrari one-two in Bahrain, with Charles Leclerc and current teammate Carlos Sainz leading Lewis Hamilton over the line.

Hungary’s rostrum saw fellow 2019 rookie Lando Norris take top spot ahead of Max Verstappen in P2 and Kimi Antonelli, who was 13 years old and still karting when Alex made his Williams debut, in third.

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Football World Champions

Both 2022 and 2026 were World Cup years, but with the Qatar edition not due to begin until November, France were still the reigning world champions when Alex made his Williams debut, thanks to their 2018 triumph. They would lose their crown to Argentina in Lusail later that year.

By race 100, it was the first Grand Prix to take place after Spain claimed their second star, defeating defending champions Argentina in the final in New Jersey just days earlier.

Green Jacket

Alex's hopes for a green jacket took a hit in Las Vegas, 2023...

The 2022 Masters were a little under a month away, meaning Hideki Matsuyama was the reigning Green Jacket holder at Augusta after his 2021 victory.

Rory McIlroy shot -11 in 2026 to claim back-to-back Masters victories, making him the reigning champion when Alex's 100th race rolled around.

Word of the Year

Every year, around half an hour's drive from our Grove headquarters, the Oxford English Dictionary designates a Word of the Year. In 2022, they chose "goblin mode" – a lazy and messy way of living that rejects social norms. Very much a pandemic hangover term.

While we wait for 2026’s winner, Oxford’s most recent selection from 2025 is "rage bait" – online content created specifically to make people angry or upset in order to generate more clicks and views. We have a feeling Alex would approve.

Biggest game in the world

In March 2022, gamers everywhere were losing themselves in Elden Ring, which had launched just a few weeks before Alex's first race for Williams and went on to be crowned Game of the Year.

And 2026? Well, we’re still waiting for GTA VI. When Alex lined up on the grid in Bahrain, Rockstar hadn't even officially announced it, the first trailer wouldn't drop for another year and a half. One hundred races later, gamers are still waiting. After slipping from 2025 to May 2026, it's now scheduled for 19th November 2026. That means Alex will likely have made it to around 110 races with Williams before anyone makes it back to Vice City.

Most-viewed YouTube Video

In March 2022, Baby Shark Dance by Pinkfong was the world's most-viewed YouTube video. It had become the first video ever to surpass 10 billion views just two months earlier and was sitting at around 10.3 billion when Alex made his Williams debut.

Guess what? It's still Baby Shark, but now it's at more than 17.1 billion views. That's around seven billion views across Alex's 100 races with Williams, or roughly 70 million Baby Shark views for every race he's started for the team.

Hair Colour

New hair, who dis? Alex in March 2023...

It was all natural for both Alex’s first Williams race and his 100th, although plenty of shades came and went in between. Red hair made its debut just a few rounds later in Melbourne before he ended that opening season with the team sporting blond locks.

Platinum blond was the look at the start of 2023, but after discovering that all the bleaching had completely "destroyed" his hair, he’s taken it a little easier in recent years.

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