The 2025 Formula 1 season has gotten off to an excellent start for Williams' Alex Albon, who has 18 points after the first three race weekends.
Across the Australian, Chinese, and Japanese Grands Prix, Albon has finished in the points every time, finishing P5, P7, and P9, respectively. He finished P11 during the Chinese sprint, but his showings in the feature races have certainly caught the eye.
These results, combined with Carlos Sainz Jr.'s P10 finish in China, have seen Williams eclipse the team's points total from the 2024 season (17) already with 19. Additionally, for the first time since the 2017 season, Williams have recorded points in three consecutive race weekends.
That year saw Brazilian Felipe Massa and rookie Canadian Lance Stroll guide Williams to fifth in the constructor standings, a position the team find themselves in once again after such an impressive start to the year.
A lot of eyes have been on Albon early this year, with many having expected the arrival of Sainz from Ferrari to either force the 29-year-old Thai driver to elevate his performance or see him struggle to keep up, as had been noted at times when Franco Colapinto burst onto the scene late last season.
However, Albon has made a strong statement with his early season performances and continues to lead the team, under the guidance of team principal James Vowles, and if he can maintain consistency throughout the year, he could be in for a record-breaker.
A career year for Alex Albon?
Albon first broke into Formula 1 back in 2019 when he initially drove for Toro Rosso, now named Racing Bulls, and picked up five points finishes across his first 12 races. His performance earned him a shock promotion to Red Bull partway through the year, with Pierre Gasly promptly demoted back to the sister team.
The then-rookie driver finished in the top six in eight out of the final nine races that season, earning his seat alongside Max Verstappen for the 2020 campaign.
2020 has proven, thus far, to be Albon's career-best in terms of total points earned. Across 17 races that year, Albon picked up 105 points and registered the two podium finishes of his career to date.
This year, however, Albon could potentially eclipse that number if he can maintain this level of performance throughout the remaining 21 feature races and five sprint races.
So far, Albon has 18 points, all registered in feature races, with a per-race average of 4.5 points if sprint races are included. As such, if he were to average this across the entire season, which would be 30 total races, Albon would hit 135 points this year.
This would see him eclipse his best year by 30 points. Averaging 3.5 points per race across the full season would see him match 105 points, so if Albon can continue to put himself in the P8 range every race, this year could truly be a record-breaker for him.
Granted, any DNFs would force Albon to have to finish higher up the grid more often, like he did in Australia, and this would also depend heavily on Williams' reliability and upgrade packages hitting the mark throughout the season.
Regardless of how close he gets to his single-season record, Albon's start to the year cannot be understated. He is already just nine points away from matching his best year with Williams, and 2025 could very well be one of the best of his career.