Two-thirds of the way through the 2025 season and, beyond the race for the drivers' championship, the midfield battle continues apace as we leave the European season behind. Next, the streets of Baku and a glance at the top-10 on the leaderboard highlights one star performer, exceeding expectations and some.

Williams' Alex Albon is not just 54 points ahead of his teammate Carlos Sainz, who is enduring a difficult first campaign at the Grove-based outfit. Nor is he only higher than Nico Hulkenberg and Isack Hadjar, both of whom recorded 15 points with memorable podiums in recent months.

But positioned in seventh, Albon is also four points clear of 19-year-old Kimi Antonelli. A Williams ahead of a Mercedes with eight races to go? An unthinkable proposition 12 months ago.

Albon, who grew up in the UK but races under the Thai flag, is in the midst of a run of results unmatched in his six-year F1 career so far. Out of 13 grands prix finished, Albon has finished in the top-10 on 11 of those occasions. He has scored 28 points in his last five races and has outscored Sainz at 11 out of 16 races in total. The only thing missing, with a highest finish of P5, is that one podium-clinching result.

Overall though, he has made a mockery of those who thought Sainz would waltz into Williams from Ferrari and grab the baton of No 1 driver. It is a mark of where Williams are headed right now, with one of the strongest driver line-ups on the grid, that a multiple race-winner is playing second fiddle.

"I can't complain in terms of my own performance," Albon told Autosport, before the summer break. "I feel like I've been able to have solid weekends and there's never been a weekend that's gone disastrously. They've always had strong peaks, let's say.

"I'm quite internal in terms of how I validate my own performances. I feel like I've just been getting on with my own job and executing well. The team has given me a great car, and I've been able to do these P5s and P6s; results that stand out."

The 29-year-old has proved his detractors - Christian Horner among them - wrong with his displays this year. It's easy to forget the crushing low Albon experienced at the end of 2020, when he was left without a seat after being axed for Sergio Perez at Red Bull. It was a cruel blow, but one which has made Albon the embodiment of resilience we see on the racetrack today.

As he told The Independent back in 2022, during his first season at Williams: "2020 was not the easiest of years and it sounds silly, but you can sometimes feel like you forget why you do it in the first place.

"Every year you're under pressure in F1 but particularly this year, there was that feeling that I've got to make it work. There was anxiety. A year away is not easy but at least for now I'm really happy with the direction that it's going. I want to redeem myself."

As well as Albon himself, Williams team principal James Vowles deserves enormous credit for reinvigorating F1's 'sleeping giant' into a force for good once more. Spearheading a technical team led by ex-McLaren and Ferrari engineer Pat Fry, Vowles has revitalised the entire company and are a clear 'best of the rest' this year, positioned fifth in the constructors' championship.

But Vowles and Albon want more. Next year brings about a reset in the sport with new engine and chassis regulations and Williams have long lined up 2026 as a chance to launch their challenge to compete right at the very top.

They'll have a Mercedes-powered engine, rumoured to be the strongest across the grid, and in Albon a cool-headed, understated driver coming into his prime. His consistency this year, fighting in the melee of the midfield, epitomises that. To his advantage, somewhat, his displays have largely gone under the radar so far - he is not one to self-adulate.

Vowles signed a new long-term contract with Williams in June; the ex-Mercedes and Brawn strategist won't settle for second-best. And, if in 2026 Williams are in the mix for podiums or wins, the signs this year show that it may in fact be Albon, not Sainz, who is fronting that challenge.

Why Williams star Alex Albon is F1's most underrated driver in 2025