Alexander Albon features on F1 Beyond the Grid podcast where he speaks on stint with Williams, time with Red Bull, off-year in 2021 and more.
Albon starts off with some small talk about his unique Australian GP performance regarding tyre performance that day, finding his race performance difficult to explain but that they are always strong on the C2 tyre in particular. He then goes on to talk about visiting an orphanage in Thailand and an amusing story with the children there dying his hair red.
He goes back to talk about his 10th place finish in Melbourne talking about the enthusiasm of the Williams team with the result. He says going forward the team may need to adopt different strategies like they did in Melbourne to achieve success. Despite this, he is 100% confident that the F1 team can achieve more once fixes which are in place happen.
Albon feels that the team are relying on him in terms of where upgrades should happen. He feels he has matured as a person in his “year off” from F1. He speaks about his year off from the sport, turned his attention towards being a better driver and self development. He speaks highly of the way Ferrari have worked this year.
He says his year as simulation driver at Red Bull did help a lot. Talking more, he spoke more about his year out feeling his desire to drive was more than ever as he was not on the grid. He helped develop the car for 2021 massively but was very frustrated watching races as he wasn’t part of the grid.
He says his hunger got more and more as he watched the F1 season went on last year, says there was always a chance might not get back on the grid and was concerned he might not return to the grid and so he considered IndyCar and Formula E for 2022.
He spoke about his initial meeting with Jost Capito at the Red Bull Ring and over a two week period, conversations became more and more before an announcement was made for 2022. He speaks highly of Capito and the team who are looking to the future massively. He feels he is more relaxed now as a driver and person. He says he put himself under a lot of pressure in 2020. He reckons he is in a good place, happier and a better driver now.
Going back in time, he talks about Brazil 2019 and Austria 2020 while holding podium places and his clashes with Lewis Hamilton, felt they were not pivotal moments in how his Red Bull tenure petered out. He noted that Hamilton did apologise for the incidents. He says Max Verstappen is super talented and likes a car in a certain way.
Also adds that Sergio Perez has done an excellent job so far at Red Bull. Albon notes that Verstappen is very straightforward to deal with, hungry and determined. He says his prowess for overtaking stems from his karting exploits with so many karts on a grid.
He says karting is the best form of racecraft and is a brilliant training ground, earlier the better. He feels rivalries has become different to a certain extent when drivers enter F1. He says everyone is very competitive. Talks about his friendships with Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz for example, very good friends but on track it is very different when the helmet is on.
He finishes off by telling an amusing story about playing golf with Sainz, Leclerc and Lando Norris. He taught his sisters to drive but they rarely listen to him. He continues on the Golf theme saying his girlfriend helps him play too, from a coaching viewpoint but the driver instinct comes out in him when he does not get immediate success on the Golf Course.
Here’s Alexander Albon’s podcast: https://audioboom.com/posts/8073017-alex-albon-a-point-to-prove
Here’s McLaren’s Steve Nichols: https://audioboom.com/posts/8069312-steve-nichols-engineering-domination-for-mclaren
Here’s what Kevin Magnussen said on F1 Beyond the Grid podcast