Alex Albon reveals he is the one taking the blame for a skirmish with Charles Leclerc at the F1 2025 Emilia Romagna GP, admitting he could have been wiser with how he chose to race the Ferrari.
The 29-year-old had the prospect of a podium on the cards at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari as he benefitted from pitting under the safety cars, whilst McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was left compromised.
It would have delivered the Williams team their first podium since 2021 and the Thai-Brit’s first since his Red Bull days in 2020, but the dream all turned to ash in the wake of two Ferrari cars.
As he looked to chase down Piastri ahead, he had to first clear the Monegasque driver’s Ferrari ahead, and in his eagerness to get after the McLaren on Lap 60, with time running out, the race fell apart as the pair tangled.
So he looked to go around the outside of Leclerc with DRS, but his rival was in no mood to surrender the place easily and sent him tumbling across the gravel – a skirmish Albon reveals he takes the blame for at the 2025 Emilia Romagna GP.
“I think maybe I could have raced Charles a bit differently,” Albon told F1 TV after the race. “I could have done a bit better there.
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“Obviously, I lost out to Lewis, and maybe I could have been a bit more patient with my overtake Charles.
“I was kind of licking my lips! I thought I could even get Oscar up in front as well, such was the pace in the new tyres we had on the car.”
Albon reacts to bittersweet Williams result in Imola
The clash allowed Lewis Hamilton, in the second Ferrari and on fresher tyres, to smartly read the situation and take advantage by moving up into fifth, before he later cleared his teammate for the Scuderia.
The Brit then went on to finish just 1.4 seconds behind a struggling Piastri, who just about made it to the chequered flag in the final podium spot, leaving Albon wondering if the team could have pipped the McLaren without that skirmish.
Eventually, he was let through into fifth by Leclerc on the orders of his team as they looked to avoid a penalty for the moment, scoring another massive round of points for the team as he brings his total for the year up to 40.
To leave the 2025 Imola GP with a bittersweet taste in his mouth after securing fifth is not something Williams would have expected after Bahrain testing, and Albon admits it’s a weird feeling.
“It’s weird, isn’t it,” Albon added, of his mood. “On the pure race [outlook] we were fighting for P3, P4 – that’s no safety cars, that’s just the pure situation.
“Obviously, we were maybe a little bit lucky with the VSC, admittedly, but at the same time we got unlucky again on the last Safety Car.
“Back-to-back P5s [here and in Miami] and [we’re] coming away today a bit disappointed, which is a bit strange to say.”
