Williams in the News: Alex’s ascent, Carlos’ upward trajectory and backroom staff under the spotlight

It’s been a positive few days for Atlassian Williams Racing, after the team secured double points in Miami last weekend.

Alex placed P5 to register his fifth return in six races, while Carlos’ P9 was his second consecutive top-ten finish.

With Williams’ strong start to the season putting us fifth in the Constructors’ Championship, there’s certainly been a feel-good factor surrounding the opening rounds of 2025.

That’s led to plenty of media coverage — so here’s a round-up of what the press have been saying since our successful stint in Florida…

Former F1 driver and Sky Sports reporter Martin Brundle was full of praise for Alex after the Miami GP, suggesting that he is in ‘the form of his life’.

Brundle made reference to AA23’s commendable display at the Miami International Autodrome in his Sky Sports column, saying:

“Fifth would fall to Alex Albon with another excellent and feisty race.

“This means that Williams were the fourth fastest team on the day and had looked much like that all weekend.

“But for a Safety Car technicality in the Sprint, Albon would have scored another handful of points there too, and he is in the form of his life.”

Rolling Stone also covered Albono’s fast start to the campaign — including quotes from our Thai racer on the focus and desire to succeed around the camp.

“I really believe in this team and the people within it,” Alex said.

“With the leadership and investment, I think we can achieve great things together and make huge progress.

“We have started this season strongly but we must not get carried away, and our ambitions are far greater than P5 in the Constructors’ Championship.

“The feeling in the team is good, everyone is hungry and motivated, it’s a great environment.”

Away from the track, Albono’s fashion choices received some attention in an article by Women’s Wear Daily.

Alex wasn’t the only Williams driver to receive acclaim following Miami, with Autosport running a feature on Carlos’ upward trajectory since joining the team.

That is, in part, due to CS55’s positive and focused mentality, as the 30-year-old alluded to while out in Florida.

“My philosophy is always [that] you can learn from bad weekends,” he explained.

“They teach you a lot of lessons, but also the good weekends. I think you need to understand what you did well to try and replicate.

“And having had a couple of good weekends after a couple of bad ones, you need to learn, probably, how you apply the good things and keep the good things — and make sure you keep working on the bad things.

“And I feel like this week [prior to the Miami GP] has helped us to understand that.

“I just had a bit of a catch-up also with my engineers. I've told them, and I think I've said it many times, that we still have a few bumps along the way in the adaptation process, because it's still… you need to discover a few things.

“Five races is not enough to discover your strengths and weaknesses or things that may catch you by surprise. But I think we're trending in the right direction and that's the important thing.”

More broadly, seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton spoke positively about Williams' overall performance at the Miami International Autodrome — as outlined in Racing News 365.

Reflecting on the weekend, he said:

“It's nice [to have claimed a Sprint podium], but pure pace, we [Ferrari] are being out-qualified by the Williams, who are doing a great job — James [Vowles] and his team are doing an amazing job... but pure pace, that's where we are.“

Williams’ backroom staff also received some well-deserved coverage this week.

Mechanic Cleo Collins featured in a BBC Sport article about women working in Formula 1, saying:

“Growing up to do my job as a mechanic... as a female I never would have thought I'd be doing that when I was 16.”

The 31-year-old later added: “I think it's definitely more inclusive [nowadays] and there's a really big push for it and movement for it.

“I think as much exposure as possible and it'll go in the right direction.”

Elsewhere, Motorsport.com shone a spotlight on Williams’ early careers programme, with a profile on three of our current employees — Graduate Design Engineer (Mechanical) Aaliyah Ascroft, Electronics Apprentice Reece Gerring and Fleur Vermeulen, who is on an Aerodynamics industrial placement.

Williams Driver Academy graduate Franco Colapinto returned to Formula 1 this week, stepping into a seat with BWT Alpine after a spell as their test and reserve driver.

Franco recorded two top-ten finishes while featuring for Williams last season, and will be back behind the wheel for next weekend’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.

News of his promotion was covered by a whole host of publications, including Autosport, who took an in-depth look at all the recent goings-on at Alpine.