Albon admits he is learning from Max Verstappen in Red Bull briefings
Alexander Albon lacks of experience in Formula 1 comparatively from his team-mate and is hoowering as much information as possible form Verstappen to become accustomed to Red Bull.
Alex Albon has become the new Verstappen’s team-mate for the second half of the 2019, replacing Pierre Gasly as due to the disappointing performances of the French Driver. The British-born Thai driver, affirmed that he is currently learning a lot from his new team mate Max Verstappen during this experiences as a Red Bull driver.
“It’s not like Max is like, ‘Alex, come over here, let me show you how to take this corner’,” he affirmed. “It’s more like he will go first in briefings and stuff like this. I’ll listen to his comments, I’ll listen to how he interprets the car and what he wants to go quicker, and even just listening to how he speaks to the team and how they communicate."
Besides, Albon underlined that, despite the strong ties between Toro Rosso and Red Bull, there are significant cultural differences between the two teams and the way the personnel communicate.
“There’s a different vocabulary in each team really, especially say Red Bull – it’s a very British team there’s a lot of British people inside; Toro Rosso was Italian, there was a very big mix. Just the way you communicate, you have different words,” remarked Albon.
“So that’s where the learning comes from, more fly on the wall stuff rather than yeah asking Max, ‘Max what do you do round this corner I need to understand because you’re very quick around there?’”
Albon continued posing emphasis on his rapport with Max Verstappen, evidencing how his team-mate has improved steeply since the first time they met in 2010 as kart drivers.
“You’d see this guy coming to the track with his dad. He’d be very quick, but he’d go home on Thursday because he wasn’t allowed to race. In 2010 it was my second year in KF3, the karting series.
“I was the experienced one, the Red Bull-backed driver who had it all going for me in that sense, and Max was the young gun and we fought pretty much the whole year. We had some crashes, some fights, all good stuff though. He beat me to the WSK Championship, and then I won the World Championship, so you could say I got the better of him…”
