Alex Albon has a complicated relationꦍship with the coun𓆉try he was born in.

He will be draped under the flag of his mother’s birthplace, Thailand, this weekend at the F1 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, having chosen not to represent Britain, 🐽where his fathe🍎r is from.

Albon, the first Thai F1 driver in the world championship’s modern era and only the second to ever represent the country - after Prince Bira - takes great pride in his roots and had the honour of being the first driver to 🐷fly the flag of Thailand on an F1 podium after finishing third at the 2020 Tuscan Grand Prix. 

The Williams driver holds dual British and Thai nationality and classes the UK as his home. After all,𓄧 he grew up in Surrey, and he currently splits his time between Milton Keynes, near Red Bull’s 🌳headquarters, and Monaco. 

Both countriꦦes are close to his hearꦡt but with no option to race under both flags, Albon ultimately sided with Thailand. 

“I still consider myself as Thai, truthfully,” the softly-spoken Albon tells wuqian0821.com in an exclusive interview. “My mum is Thai, I spent a lot of time as𒀰 a kid in Thailand. 

“There is a part of me that does feel British as well. If there was a way to ha♏ve a dual nationality racing licenc▨e, as there is in a passport, I would do it. But obviously it doesn’t work like that, unfortunately.” 

This we𓆏eken♚d will mark Albon’s third British Grand Prix.

With no F1 race in Thailand, you might think Albon would class Si🎃lverstone as ♔his home race, but he sees things differently. 

“I would call it ꦬa second home race,” Albon says. “It’s as much of a home race as S✨ingapore is. 

“But I have a close coꦛnnection with the UK and with Silverstone. I live 25 minutes away from Silverstone, at least my family do. 

“Strangely enough, I h𓂃aven’t actually driven that many times around Silverstone. But I live close by.” 

Asked if he feels accepted by British fans despite choosing to race under the Thai flag, Albon replies: “I do, definitely. Firstly, that’s partly due to how big F1 is in the UK. But yes, I doဣ feel like that. 

“Especially when I am in England, it’s where I get not🐻iced the most and I see a lot of people that are passionate about the sport, which is great.”

Albon believes h𝔍is stronger affiliation to Thailand has its advantages.

“I think I’m in a good place because I don’t get attacked too much by the British media,” Albon jokes with a ꦏsmile. 

“Well it dependsꦚ, either I’m called the London-born Thai if I do a good job, or I’m not British at all if I do 💮a bad job!” 

Battling his best mates in F1 

Albon forms part of F1’s ‘Twitch Quartet’, a group consisting of some of the sp🍎ort’s most popular (and highly-rated) young drivers on the grid in George Russell, Lando Norris and Charles Le♔clerc. 

The four of them got the nickname💜 from spending much of the COVID-19 lockdowns entertaining their followers by live streaming video games on Twitch. 

Albon, Russell and Norris in particular are extremely close, having been long-time friends since their days spent racing in the junior categories. The trio locked out the top-three in the 2018 F2 championship before all🍰 making their F1 debuts the following yea🍬r. 

While Russell and Norris have gone on to land drives at Mercedes and McLaren, Albon finds ꦜhimself closer to the ba🦄ck of the grid at Williams, who are targeting an F1 revival after years of struggles. 

Russell and Norris’ performances in the last few seasons have seen them earmarked as potential world champions of the futur💞e. Albon has aspirations of joining his best friends in the battle for F1 silverware. 

“I mean that’s always the plan, you have to dream big,” he says. “It’s no secret that every driver, once you’re iಞn F1, theಌ next goal is to be a F1 world champion. 

"Of course George looks like he’s made ꩲthat big first step forward. Lando too, and he’s doing an amazing job. 

“We’ll need to be a bit quicker to be fighting for the championship but at the minute I’m really happy with where I’m at. It might take a little bit lo♚nger 🌱but that is the plan.”

Asked if he bel🏅ieves he can beat them to a world championship in a straight fight, Albon replies bullishly: “You have to believe that, or else there’s no point racing.” 

A redemption year 

Albon 💜is on the path to redemption after spending a year on the sidelines having los𒐪t his Red Bull drive to Sergio Perez at the end of 2020 following a difficult season as Max Verstappen’s teammate. 

During 2021, Albon played a key behind-the-scenes role at Red Bull in th🎐e development of Verstappen’s ti🐟tle-winning RB17B. He subsequently earned a return to the grid with Williams for this season, taking the seat left vacant by Russell. 

Along with Red Bull, Russell was known to have lobbied with Wilꦜliams for Albon to get the drive.&𝕴nbsp;

Albon has not let Williams down. Despite being tasked w𒅌ith the daunting respoꦺnsibility of continuing the brilliant work carried out by Russell between 2019-2021, the 26-year-old has flourished. 

Albon claimed an unlikely first point of the season for Williams by making an ambitious tyre strategy work in Australia, before bagging another two points for the British out🎃fit in Miami with another impressive display. 

His performances drew praise from Russell, who believes Albon has “cemented his position” in F1.&nb🎀sp;

“I believe it’s going very well and I want t🥃o stay, that’s my goal,” Albon says. ಌ;

“The season has started off really well. As a team, we’ve not n🐈ecessarily been where we’ve wanted to be, but we’ve made the most of our opportunities to score points when it didn’t look possible. 

“The racing side of th𓄧ings has gone really well. There was a little bit of a feeling that i⛎t was a redemption year in a sense, that’s how I wanted it to be. 

“I want to prove to people what I c♊an do. So far at least, obviously it’s still very early in the season, but it’s been going really well. I definitely can’t complain.” 

Albon credits his experiences during his tough time out of F1 for ultimately shaping him into a more complete dr🌃iver, as well as helping him to mature. 

“I don’t want to make it sound arrogant but I feel like I’ve always been a good𒀰 driver,” he explains. “It hasn’t come fro🅘m nothing. 

“George and I would𝔉 be fighting for championships together in junior formulas and I’ve always felt like, given the right chance and the right opportunity, I can show what I can do. ꩲ;

“Of course 2020 wasn’t the most amazing🧜 year, but it w🌌asn’t an easy year in terms of the experience that I had or the confidence in the car that I had. 

“I feel lik🌌e this year now I feel much more confident in driving, I feel the connectio🌳n in the team, we’ve straight away gelled very quickly and because of that it looks like it has come from somewhere. 

“But truthfully, it just feels like just being in the right place at the right time. Wit꧃h the year out as well, I feel like I’ve matured and g🍌ained experience where I feel like I’m a better driver than I was before.

“To get a sea🌺t for next year, you have to remind people,” adds Albon. “You can’t have a bad year in any F1🦂 season. 

“So yes, there is always 💙that feeling where you are going into a year where you ha♚ven’t driven before, there’s that, ‘will I get up to speed okay?’ 

“I know with Fernando [Alonso] and Esteban [Ocon], when they came back after their time out, it took a bit of time to understand. But thankfully for me there was a bit of a reset with the ꦓcar, with the regulations and that played into my favouꦆr a bit. 

“There is that element, but I feel like this year has gone, so far, better than I expected it to go. Hopefully I’ll continue to get better as the chemistry between myse💃lf and the team gets stron♐ger and stronger.” 

What does the future hold? 

Albon is desperate to make the most of his r♐are second chance at F1, having been forced to watchও from the shadows last season. 

But a route back to a top team is unclear, with Perez’s new ꧑two-year contract seemingly closing the door for a return to the Red Bull fold. 

Perhaps it is more likely that Albon’s impressive form will attract the attention of the teams that occupꦆy the upper midfield.  

As far as 2023 is concerned, Albon is set to stay at Williams. He may eve𒊎n remain there beyond and spearhead the team𝐆’s long-term project to return to the front. 

“On m✱y side, I only look at things very short-term,” he says. “Because if you think about, ‘this does this, this does that, in the future they crossover’, you think about things which have no effect on what your future is doing.💦 

“I really just focus o🌟n the present time and for me, I see myself as a Williams driver. My job is to extract the most out of the car and develop the car in the best way possible, so that we are fighting for points more regularly and moving up in the championship. 

“That’s really how I see things. Of course things go on around🦄 [you] but it’s really about what you are doing in the now, and that’s my ♊focus. My focus is on doing the best job possible.”