Alex Albon spent the 2021 season on the sidelines after he was replaced by Sergio Perez to drive alongside Max Verstappen.
Albon was promoted to the Red Bull F1 team from the Toro Rosso in the mid-2019 season. He had replaced Pierre Gasly, who was demoted for his underperformance in the 2019 season.
While the British-Thai driver remained the Dutchman’s teammate until the 2020 season, he could not match Verstappen’s pace. Therefore, the team decided to replace him with Perez and in return demoted Albon to the role of reserve driver.
After spending a year on the sidelines, Albon finally found a seat with the Williams and scored 50% of the team’s points in 2022.
Red Bull’s chief engineer Paul Monaghan was quite pleased by how Albon developed during the tough times outside of the racing grid.
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Alex Albon handled the pressure exceptionally well
Williams struggled in its performance in the 2022 season and could only score 8 points in total. The team finished at the bottom of the constructors’ standings.
Regardless of that, Albon established himself as the team leader while sharing the garage with Nicholas Latifi. After being back on the racing grid, Albon impressed many with his spectacular performance in the Williams.
Even when he was working with Verstappen at Red Bull, he was exceptionally good at handling the pressure of racing against the Dutchman.
Monaghan revealed that while he did not spend a lot of time with the British Thai driver, he noticed how Albon had an impressive idea of what he wanted from his car.
“He had a pretty rapid teammate, which put a bit more pressure on him but he handled that exceptionally well for a young driver,” added Monaghan.
Contrasting emotions for the Red Bull drivers at Interlagos…
Alex Albon was left devastated after a late collision with Lewis Hamilton cost him his first #F1 podium#BrazilGP 🇧🇷 pic.twitter.com/jfTazZ4Od0
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 19, 2019
Albon was frustrated but yet able to deal with the situation
Monaghan also lauded Albon for staying positive throughout the process. It is obvious that being demoted from the racing seat is not what a driver looks forward to.
Albon too was quite frustrated by how his career had turned out to be. But he was not despondent about it.
Instead, he took it as an opportunity to learn and bounce back in better shape to the racing grid and score points, which he did in the 2022 season.
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