Atlassian Williams Racing has enjoyed a great start for the 2025 season of Formula 1.
What could have been considered a year of transition for the team, with Carlos Sainz Jr. joining the alignment of drivers and this season representing the last year before the new regulations arrive in 2026, the beginning of the campaign has nothing more than a transition. The team has a roaring start, and enter the European part of the calendar that is in fifth place in the classification of the Construction Championship, 17 points ahead of Haas of sixth place.
Before Emilia Romagna this week’s Grand Prix, SB nation Upon reaching the driver Alexander Albon to discuss the beginning of the team’s season, his hopes for the rest of the campaign and the importance of hydration and nutrition in Formula 1.
The beginning of the 2025 season for Atlassian Williams races
The discussion begged with an approach to what the team has achieved so far this season. Albon started the year with a strong performance in the season by opening the Australian Grand Prix, ending fifth in Melbourne. While the weather may have played a role in that result, Albon was also found in the fifth line in the Miami Grand Prix, a purely result in merit and rhythm.
Albon described the team’s openings in the season as “promising”, pointing out the 37 points that Atlassian Williams Racing has accumulated about six races.
“It has been a very promising beginning for the 2025 season. We have produced some really strong results and obtained a lot of points compared to recent seasons, especially considering that we are six races in the year,” said Albon.
Both Albon and Sainz expressed their confidence during the week in Miami. Sainz stood out after qualifying how he was alone “three tense” outside the pole when he described the sixth, and Albon spoke extensively with the media, including SB nationon the rhythm of the FW47 after its P5 in Miami.
When asked about the 2025 challenger of the team, Albon stood out how tight is the field this season and the need to continue pressing.
“It is the last year of this regulation set, so the gap between the teams is becoming narrower and closer, which places a greater focus on US drivers who offer the best possible return and extract the maximum of the car,” Albon began. “If you make the smallest error that costs you a tenth of the laptop, it can mean four or five positions on the network.
“We have started the season with force, and we are offering the opportunities we are creating, we just need to make sure they are not complacent and get the maximum of what we have.”
Something more happened in Miami before the Grand Prix that simply needed to ask Albon.
The Lego drivers parade.
Before the Miami Grand Prix, the 20 pilots to the track in the LEGO F1 “Big Build” cars, one for each team in the grid. Chaos, as well as pure joy, occurred.
“It was a lot of fun!” Albon exclaimed when asked about the Lego drivers parade.
“Just before a race, we are in the area and we focus on everything we have to do and remember. So the drivers parade it was welcome to see the Lego cars on the network for drivers,” Albonon added. “I am a big Lego fan, I have my leg since I was a child and, therefore, when I saw them, just although I was in the ‘racing fashion’, in the background I was very excited to jump and have fun a little.”
F1 launched a 15 -minute video with images of the camera aboard each car, which you can see to see a lot of fun that Albon and Company had that Sunday in Miami before the Grand Prix.
The importance of nutrition and hydration in F1
The longer I spend about F1, the more I learn. From what is needed to handle a car on the track, to what drivers need to eliminate the network to the elite performance of Mintain. For example, before the 2024 United States Grand Prix, I spent time with Tom Clark, performance coach of Esteban Ocon, to learn how drivers handle trips, strength training and more.
Having spent a week in Florida for the Miami Grand Prix in warm and humid conditions, the importance of hydration was the next focus of the conversation. I started asking Albon how he and drivers remain hydrated before, duration and after a race.
“Managing my hydration is essential! Through the race weekend, I am constantly aware of my general energy levels, since it is so key to function at the highest level,” Albon began. “As a driver, we are often reminded that we take fluids on board and continue moisturizing at all times, and Liquid IV plays an important role in the creation of hydration for me three times the electrolytes of the main sports drinks.
“In hottest race destinations like Miami, we lose a lot of water weight through sweat. Fortunately, working with Liquid IV has allowed me to rehydrate and recover faster, so I perform at my best.”
Albon accredited a partner in Liquid IV for maintaining his hydration not only the day of the race, but during the week.
“The good thing about Liquid IV is that they are not only important weekends of the doors, but also in my daily life,” Albon added. “I am a great believer in the importance of hydration for my general well-being, and Liquid IV is breaking barriers in the hydration space. It makes it easier for me to maintain concentration and ready for me to think of that day on the day-1, Wor Worneric.”
Similar to my discussion with Clark the past autumn, Albon emphasized how criticism are hydration and nutrition for F1 conductors. With the schedule taking the grid worldwide, and portions of the calendar, including the main headers, such as the next section that will take the imola network to Monaco and finally to Barcelona, staying healthy is essential.
When he adds everything that happens to the pilots inside the cars on the day of the race, he becomes critical.
“It’s incredible important,” Albon said when I asked about the importance of hydration and nutrition. “When it combines the demanding travel calendar, the high temperatures, our multiple layers of fire clothing and a heavy crash helmet, and the other elements of being a driver, staying aware of adequate hydration and nutrition play a paper in general.
“The pilots can lose four to five pounds in sweat during a normal race, sometimes even more in the hottest and most physical races, and handle my hydration before, during and after a race it is one of the most important elements to have a successful performance. I am lucky to work together with a brand like Liquid IV to help be an experience without expensive,” added the driver of Williams Atlassian Williams.
Looking to the future
It was time to look towards the rest of the 2025 campaign, with one eye around 2026 and the incoming set of technical regulations. The F1 calendar included a week between the Miami Grand Prix and the next triple header, which presents this week with the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
But if you think Albon and the rest of the drivers had a week off last week, you are certainly wrong.
“A free week? Among the races, we have simulator days in the factory and fitness fields of the team and the sponsor marketing days, I can’t remember the last time we had a free week!” Albon began when asked about the next triple Header.
If Albon and Atlassian Williams Racing will succeed in the next three weeks, the entire team needs to “get to their qualifications” out of the door.
“Triple heading races are demanding, everyone must be ready to reach their brands and get out of the off, that goes for drivers, engineers, mechanics, boxwood crews, all,” Albonon added. “It is great to run again in Europe, the beginning of this leg of the season is always pleasant, fans are so passionate and geay knowledge. I hope we can make a show and offer some excellent results!”
This section includes the Monaco Grand Prix, the Crown Jewel of the F1 calendar. However, the race has become a mediocre issue in recent years, with almost impossible overtaking on the day of the race. Last year’s Monaco Grand Prix is an excellent example of this phenomenon. An opening LPS shock took out a red flag and took the entire grid to Pit Lane shortly after the start. The drivers who traced in the field screwed in hard tires last the red flag, and were the rest of the road without the need for pits in boxes.
That meant that Oscar Piastri, who finished second, saw nothing more than the rear wing of the Charles Leclerc Ferrari on the turns that followed to the checkered flag.
Before this year’s Monaco Grand Prix, the governing body of the sport is instituting a change of rules, which requires two boxes in boxes instead of one. I asked Albon if I thought that could improve the races, but the driver expressed a certain skepticism.
“The cars are getting bigger, but the circuit remains the same, so I think the overtaking will always be complicated until the regulations change,” Albon said.
Talking to the media after the Miami Grand Prix, Albon emphasized that the team’s goal was to cling to the fifth in the Builders Championship. I asked Albon if the team was on its way to achieving that goal.
“It’s a very long season and there is still a way to go,” Albon added. “Our approach will focus on the new 2026 regulations that stop developing this year’s car, which in turn makes it difficult to keep their competitors up to date, assuming, of course, they have not changed their attention.”
The circuit in Miami seemed to adapt to the team challenger, as indicated by Albon and Sainz when talking to the media through the week. When asked if other circuits at the schedule could adapt to FW47, Albon kept his cards near his chest.
“You just know,” said Albon. “Sometimes you think we are going to be faster and our competitors are ahead, they were other clues, we believe that we are going to be poor and we are strong. So we are taking career for race and focusing on what is in front of us.”
As for his and the team’s objectives during the rest of 2025 and in 2026 when the new regulations arrive?
Reaching the sport pinnacle is what they have in mind.
“Advance, continue improving, progressing and scoring as many points as possible,” Albon said when asked about the goals for 2025 and in 2026.
“Our ambitions are bringing this team to the top, and we are giving everything possible to take us there.”
