EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW ALEX ALBON

I’m seen as a nice guy but that’s not entirely true... you can’t be that in F1’s shark world

- Matt Majendie

ALEX ALBON flicks through a pile of photographs, signing each one, followed by a stack of Williams team caps and then a letter to an ardent fan.

All of it is done with an easy smile — you would be hard-pressed to find a nicer driver on the grid.

But for four of the past five seasons, Williams have finished rock bottom in the constructors’ championship, making his bid to dispel the theory that nice guys don’t win that much harder.

And in any case, Albon insists he is not as nice as people make out.

“It’s like there’s two characters,” he says in the lead-up to Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix. “It’s not bipolar, it’s just who I’ve always been. I feel like you can’t be nice in a car because it’s a competition and you’re there to beat other people. And anyway rightly or wrongly the nice guy persona is not entirely true to who I am.”

Now 27, the London-born driver believes he has mellowed and matured from a more hot-headed youth. But at the end of the day, any changes have merely been about getting quicker.