Red Bull Contentpool
F1 News
Albon: 'The car is what it is, Verstappen makes the difference'
Having been Max Verstappen's teammate for a year and a half, Alexander Albon knows a lot about the Dutchman. In the High Performance Podcast, he gives an insight into whether the car is made for Verstappen and how the Dutchman's driving style differs from others.
Albon says Verstappen is often seen as the 'Schumacher of Ferrari'. He has built a team around him, but the car is the way it is. So there will be no car based on Verstappen's driving style. Verstappen is just very fast.
The Thai-British driver indicates that Verstappen can distinguish himself from his teammates and the rest of the field by having a unique driving style. This one is just certainly not easy to deal with. Albon's driving style requires a good front end. It needs to be sharp and direct. So a car that responds well to what you do with the steering wheel.
Eye-wateringly sharp
Verstappen's driving style is also sharp and direct but on another level. Eye-wateringly sharp, Albon calls it. Here, he gives an example of a computer game. "If you bump up the sensitivity to the max and move the mouse, and the mouse darts all over the screen, that's how it feels."
So this means that in the setup of Verstappen's car, if you turn the steering wheel a few millimetres too far, you lose the rear of the car.