It’s often believed that Red Bull has designed their F1 cars to suit the driving style of Max Verstappen. The recent success of their number one driver, including his 2 championship wins, all come due to the strengths of the car.
At the same time, none of the Dutchman’s teammates have performed on par with him. Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, and Sergio Perez have not managed to stick it close to the 2x champion with the former two drivers being sacked from their seats after disappointing results.
Albon even argued that part of Perez’s issues stems from the car not being set up according to him. The Thai driver claimed this was the case even while he was at Red Bull in 2019 and 2020.
🗣️ | Lewis Hamilton on Max Verstappen and the RB19:
“Max is in another league,”
“His car is so fast and he passed me halfway down the straight and he was several metres ahead.”
“I don’t know how it is so quick on the straight, it is just insane.” pic.twitter.com/C7bAtKRhY7
— Verstappen News (@MV_Updates) April 2, 2023
However, the now-Williams driver believes the media has misinterpreted his statements. He claims it’s the brilliance of Verstappen, who manages to extract the performance from the car, that brings the results.
Alex Albon defends Max Verstappen in a new statement
Changing his stance, Alex Albon now claims Red Bull does not build their cars around Max Verstappen. Instead, the Thai driver believes the team was right to seek the expertise of their star driver in order to improve.
In the past few years, the Dutchman has delivered most of Red Bull’s success. He is a regular on the podium and that’s why the team chooses to prioritize his strategy over his teammates. Nevertheless, the 2x champion too has to adapt to the car rather than the other way around.
Max Verstappen has warned that if F1 keeps changing the weekend format, then he will quit sooner rather than later ❌
“I don’t find that is in the DNA of Formula One to do these kinds of sprint races.”
Do you agree with the double world champ? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/KNEmrNebTW
— Autosport (@autosport) April 8, 2023
Albon stated, “I think people get very confused with designing a car around a driver and a driver who’s very quick and wants a car a certain way. You’re going to listen to the driver who’s getting the performance in and getting a good job because the potential is more.”
He driver added, “He can deal with it and he drives it in a certain way. You’ve got to try and find what he has because, at the end of the day, he’s making it work. Honestly, that’s the difference.”
What were Albon’s previous comments?
Alex Albon and Max Verstappen were teammates at Red Bull for half of the 2019 and 2020 F1 seasons. However, Albon’s time at Red Bull was overshadowed by his experienced teammate, who was responsible for most of the team’s points.
Verstappen scored 214 of Red Bull’s 319 points. He achieved 2 wins and 11 podiums while Albon only managed 2 podiums. Thus, Albon let go from his seat at the end of the season and was replaced with Sergio Perez.
Albon later claimed one of the reasons for his struggles with the Red Bull car was its unique setup. He claimed that it is built around Verstappen.
Interesting article by Alex Albon on his F1 career, including what faces anyone partnering Max Verstappen at Red Bull https://t.co/PTwdtPTBx1 pic.twitter.com/fqRcAg3e84
— Andrew Benson (@andrewbensonf1) February 28, 2023
The Williams driver said, “He might be the greatest driver of all time, but he has a very distinct style of driving. He likes the car set up a certain way that’s hard for a lot of drivers to sync up with.”
On the contrary, Albon preferred more “front-end and nose.” However, the driver claimed the Red Bull car was way from front sensitive compared to any other cars he had driven. He added, “When I got into the Red Bull, there was so much nose on the thing that if you blew on the wheel the car would turn.”
Albon praised the 2x champions’ adaptability to each and every car he has raced in. However, given that none of his teammates has ever gotten closer to him, it does raise an eyebrow.
