Alex knows what it feels like to be at the end of the road.
He says that you are on the mental edge of panic. I sat on that worry for a long time. It's not possible to panic forever. It's not something you can worry about forever.
I have to give it my all. Everything has to be on the table.
One of Formula 1's feel-good stories of the year was that of Albon, who was born in London but races as a Thai.
He talked about the ride that took him to Williams in an exclusive interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation.
He was dropped by Red Bull at the end of 2020. After a year as their test driver, they got a seat at Williams. A new contract has been signed by Albon.
He has drawn on his self-belief to bounce back from a lot of knocks in his life.
He says the recent medical emergency in which he had an appendix removed was not a big deal.
He says that it is a small one. I got back into a good place thanks to the doctors who were in Italy. I'm very lucky.
Two years ago, it looked like Albon's career was over before it started.
Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and George Russell competed against Albon. As their F1 careers were taking off, he had given up on the idea of making it at the top of the sport.
Albon was dropped from their driver programme in 2012 but was offered a seat in 2019. In the all-electric Formula E series, Albon was able to get out of his contract with Nissan.
He had an eye-catching drive in the German Grand Prix. Red Bull replaced Pierre Gasly with someone else after he was promoted to the senior team. Albon went from being ignored by F1 to a seat in one of the best cars on the grid.
He was retained for 2020 but by the end of the year Red Bull decided to remove him from the seat because he couldn't get close to Verstappen. They liked him and kept him as a reserve driver.
It was difficult to make the decision.
If I said I didn't expect it, I'd be lying. I didn't do well that season. There was a chance that it would happen.
I had always wanted to be in F1 since I was four. It's almost like this is the end. You've only been in it for a couple of years.
How fast everything came about is a brutal business. One of the top teams in the sport left after it was a true fast track from Toro Rosso. It was like: "Woah, OK." It hit me very hard.
His eyes are up a little as he talks.
He remembers the meeting. Everything was clear as the day went on. I have a good network of people. I have a family. They are my friends. People around me.
Within a day, there was only one thought, "I'm going to get back on the grid." I only watched a plan A.
I returned to work very quickly. In the beginning of January, I was in the simulation. I don't know how I'm going to get into F1 again. I had a plan to accomplish that.
I think I want F1 more than anyone else. Everyone will agree with that. I think it's true. I knew I had to do what it takes in order to prove myself. It was almost like you couldn't do anything without the car.
Albon had suffered setbacks in his career. He had trouble keeping things on track for a long time.
He had been a Red Bull-backed driver early in his career, but lost their support after an indifferent season in Formula Renault in 2012 due to a major personal upheaval.
His mother, Kankamol, was jailed for fraud, leaving Albon to look after his siblings.
He doesn't want to discuss it. He recalled how he saw her get locked up and taken away in the first series of Drive to Survive.
The road helped Albon when he was trying to rebuild his career.
He says it's because he went through it. "I've had it before, personal stuff, as well as I had it in Formula Renault, where I wasn't going to race the year after and we scrambled along and pretty much got a budget together within a couple of weeks of the first race."
It seems like it has worked out many times. It sounds like I'm a gambler, but, no, it's just true ambition, and you can achieve your goals if you put your mind to it.
Albon is modest and easy to get along with. It's difficult to put together an apparently gentle character with the steel he needs to get where he is.
He says the public gets him wrong. They think I'm a happy child and that I'm not hungry.
They don't have a headset, so they won't see the fiery side. They don't listen to me. I'm quite content. I really enjoy what I do. I wanted to be in F1 because of that. I feel like I have learned to enjoy it. If you want to be in F1, you have to be fiery.
He told me that what got him to this point seems more like steel than fire. At the same time, it's determination.
You almost have to be a fighter to drive a car. You fight other drivers when you have a helmet on. I am ready to go. When I have my helmet on, I'm not a good person. Speak to the engineers and they will give you that information.
How do you revive an F1 career without actually racing?
Albon wanted to work with Red Bull. He says he spent six days out of seven in their simulation.
The data sheet he prepared proved that his results at Red Bull were better than the general perception, and that he was in line with the people who replaced him.
The 2020 car was not easy to show.
He gave the data to the Williams CEO at the Austrian Grand Prix in July of 2021. He told Capito that he was a good driver and that he should take him.
Russell was going to be promoted to Mercedes in 2022. Russell was making a case to the team.
Albon says that he played a part in the project. My name is on the map.
I've raced against George many times and I'm very thankful that he still believes in my ability. He mentioned my name a few times to the board, but they said they wouldn't listen to him because he was too much of a joke.
The principal of Red Bull weighed in on the matter.
He says that they both convinced him to go with them. I'm certain that they told him the job I was doing.
It's very important." I knew I had to have Christian and Helmut value what I do.
"Because I couldn't drive the car, a lot of this paddock is gossip, and it's talking and it's trust, and I need to make sure that they really believe in me and will support me." If there wasn't any space in the Red Bull team, I would still rely on them to have a good word for me.
Albon paid back Capito and Williams for their faith.
They have the slowest car on the grid, but Albon scored a point in only his third race for the team, in which he drove almost the entire grand prix on one set of tires, only stopping on the final lap.
He added points in Miami and then in Belgium at the end of the month.
It is almost as if Williams have lost Russell and replaced him with the same driver. The advantage Albon has over Nicholas is similar to Russell's.
From the beginning, Albon was focused on getting himself back to being the driver he thought he could be.
He had a plan for the areas he wanted to work on. I wanted to fix my areas first and understand. I have to get used to the team.
The performance of the car and where it was at are more important than that. I have to look at myself and really think about my future.
The process began with Red Bull.
He spent a lot of time in a simulator in a dark room last year and had a lot of time to look at what he was doing the previous year and why he was quick.
I was aware of the details. I worked closely with the guys for the Red Bull car and understand vehicle development. I didn't feel confident in the 2020 car. Confidence is a very important thing. It's not possible to teach that. It's impossible to work on it. It's just a matter of gelling with the car.
You can see it with drivers on the grid, where they will go to one team and they will struggle, and then they will go to another team. There are many drivers who have struggled in one team and excelled in another.
He says avoiding these pitfalls is about understanding what it takes to be fast.
Albon said that his time at Red Bull made him understand that sometimes not a comfortable car was a quicker car.
The knowledge of understanding a car's characteristic is what it is. That changes from a group of people to a group of people.
Outside the car, Albon formed a new relationship with a performance coach and took on a manager.
He can talk about marketing stuff with them.
Williams have made Albon's dislike for marketing activities into a joke on their social media channels. He smiles and says it's a real thing. I think I got caught up in the noise of F1 too much in 2020. I was trying to avoid all the gunfire.
Having that circle around me has allowed me to focus on the driving side of things, even though Red Bull was very helpful to me.
I'm more comfortable with the engineers than in front of a camera, that's for sure.
I had to make sure I had a plan going into this year. This is the way I operate. This is where I understand the car, but I need to understand the team and figure out how I perform at my best.
The handling of the Formula 1 environment is something that doesn't get a lot of attention. You guys do your jobs and it's a beast.
The McLaren contract being terminated a year early to make room for a driver who has not even raced in F1 was the subject of a recent controversy.
To be able to drive with so much talk going around is not an easy thing to do. I don't think I can tell myself the things I know now. It's a wonderful thing that you can't.
The hard work has paid off.
Albon said that he felt comfortable. I feel like I'm in a good car. I know I'm driving better than I did in 2020 because I feel confident in my abilities.
The year has gone as well as I could have hoped for.
He thinks he has proven a point.
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