F1's Alex Albon on getting ready for the Miami GP - and his 14 cats

Key developments are emerging from the global stage. F1's Alex Albon on getting ready for the Miami GP - and his 14 cats 1 hour ago Share Save Add as preferred on Google Áine O Donnell Newsbeat Getty Images Alex Albon joined Williams for the 2022 Formula 1 season Hanging out on a beach seems to have been the go-to choice for Formula 1 drivers during this unplanned break at the start of the new season. Whether it's splashing around in the sea with Kim Kardashian like Sir Lewis Hamilton or a shirtless Charles Leclerc strolling across the sand with his wife, there's definitely been more time to chill. But Williams driver Alex Albon says he's been kept busy in a slightly different way.

"I think I have a big fan club behind the scenes. They might not be all human, but they're there," he tells Newsbeat. He's talking about his self-titled Albon Zoo of 14 cats, dogs and horses that will be well-known to fans of Netflix's popular F1 doc Drive to Survive.

The Details

"It's so hectic but cat life is calming. It's a calming chaos, you could say. " Getty Images Alex Albon had two podium finishes while at Red Bull with four-time world champion Max Verstappen Newsbeat caught up with Albon before the sport's return to racing in Miami this weekend after a five-week break.

The British-Thai driver says the enforced time off, after two races were cancelled because of the Iran war , came at the right time. "We started this year on the back foot," he says. "We have to have a bit of time to catch up.

The big thing now is just that rebound factor. " Albon hasn't hasn't scored any points in the first three races of the season and didn't even make the starting grid at the Chinese Grand Prix. "It's not that we don't know where to find lap time," he says.

What Experts Say

"We know where our issues are so we're not scratching our heads. " But Williams will get a chance to turn things around in Miami. 'I'm going to focus on darts' Albon says it's the perfect circuit to try out the cars after changes were made to the new engine rules during the break.

The tweaks come after strong criticism from some drivers that their skills were being diminished because of the rules introduced at the start of the season. "It delivers good racing and I'll be interested to know with these regulations how that plays out," Albon says. "I think you're going to get a lot of overtakes.

" The 30-year-old thinks the changes should "fix the majority of the issues", adding the first three races felt "tricky". "It's maybe not what drivers or fans wanted," he says. "It might not be a total fix but I think all of the drivers think it's a step in the right direction.

The development has drawn wide international attention, with diplomatic circles watching closely.