Albon suggests he did better than previous teammates of Max and Perez now
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Alexander Albon suddenly found himself driving alongside Max Verstappen for Red Bull Racing in mid-2019. The British Thai did the same in 2020, but then the adventure with the Milton Keynes-based team was over and they opted to recruit Sergio Perez. Albon doubts aloud that he did not do better in those days than Perez does today.
In 2020, Lewis Hamilton overwhelmingly became world champion for the seventh time. In the RB16, Verstappen often had no real chance against the Mercedes, although he still won two GPs. It was a difficult year for Red Bull and Albon also struggled. The driver who now plays for Williams was only on the podium twice and often fought his duels in the midfield.
Albon compares with Perez
It was reason for Red Bull to say goodbye to Albon after a year and a half. Three years later, he himself says: "Max was qualifying third or fourth, sometimes even fifth. Sometimes finishing races, generally third or fourth. So then I would be maybe three or four tenth of him in some races, that would put me 12th, 11th and they were disastrous. But the year after, I feel shy or awkward to say this, the car was first or second almost every race. Lewis and Max are fighting for the title, and Checo was fourth or third, or fifth."
He continued in the High Performance Podcast: "But the gap between Max was actually, in most cases, bigger than it was, when I was Max’s teammate. And so, I just kind of had this like, I was like, well, he is not having… You know, he is a replacement to me. But people shouldn’t discredit it as much as a bad year as it was. I was still, in reflection, better, than the two previous teammates, or the teammate he has currently and the teammate he had before me.”
Albon has blossomed completely at Williams. He went through a strong year and cleverly scored 27 points, good for 13th in the world championship.