Alex Albon has spoken out about his time working alongside Max Verstappen at Red Bull and the key elements that distinguish the reigning triple world champion’s driving style.
Albon was Verstappen’s teammate for one and a half seasons after being promoted from Toro Rosso (now AlphaTauri) midway through his debut 2019 season and retaining his place into 2020.
Albon was demoted to a reserve driver role for 2021 after failing to match the Dutchman’s pace and consistency during that time, prompting him to look elsewhere in his quest to rejoin the F1 grid.
In an appearance on the High-Performance Podcast, co-hosted by former BBC F1 presenter Jake Humphrey, the now-Williams driver reflected on his brief stint at Red Bull and revealed what makes Verstappen tick.
“The first thing is, a lot of people say that car is built around him, he’s kind of like the Michael Schumacher of Ferrari, he’s created this team around him,” Albon said of being Verstappen’s teammate.
“Truly, the car is what it is, and he is very fast, so what ends up happening is… He has a distinct driving style that is difficult to accept.
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“Everyone has a driving style; I would say mine is a little smoother, but I like a car with a good front-end, so quite sharp and direct.” Max does, too, but his level of sharpness and directness is unrivaled – it’s eye-wateringly sharp.
“To give people an idea of how that might feel, if you turn up the sensitivity [on a computer game] to the max and move that mouse, it’s just darting across the screen everywhere, that’s kind of how it feels.” It becomes so sharp that it causes you to tense up.”
Albon went on to explain that as the season progresses and new car developments arrive, a “snowball” effect occurs, increasing the pressure on the driver in the opposite car to Verstappen.
“What ended up happening was, especially during my year, you start off being a little bit behind, but not by much, and then as the season goes on, Max wants this front-end in the car, he wants his car to be sharper, sharper,” the Thai-British racer commented.
“As it gets sharper and sharper, he gets faster and faster, and in order to catch up, you have to start taking a little more risk.” You might be a couple of tenths behind one session; just try a little bit more before saying, ‘OK, I’ve gone off, I’ve had a crash,’ and you’ll have to restart.
“Then you lose a little bit of confidence, it takes a little bit more time, that gap grows a little bit, and the next time you try to go out and do another job, [it’s] another spin or whatever – it just starts to snowball.” You begin to become more tense as the car becomes sharper and sharper.
“It’s like any sport, if you start to lose that flow state and have to think about it all the time, and every time you go into a corner, you don’t know how it’s going to react, you don’t have that kind of… It’s all about the flow and confidence in the car. It never works, and it never will.”
Verstappen has won three F1 world championships in a row, edging out Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton in 2021 and dominating in 2022 and 2023, while Albon has reignited his career at Williams, guiding the team to a P7 finish in this year’s constructors’ standings.
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