F1 News
Albon backs Verstappen after criticism of overnight sim race in Hungary
- Sandy van Wijngaarden
After Max Verstappen took part in a sim race the night before the Hungarian Grand Prix, he was subsequently widely criticised for it. Former Red Bull Racing driver Alexander Albon thinks from his experience of working with Verstappen that this will not be a problem for him.
Helmut Marko wrote in a column that the Dutchman had come to a decision with Red Bull not to sim race the night before a race any more. Alexander Albon himself has also driven at Red Bull Racing. In his time, he felt that the Red Bull advisor was not very involved in what he did in his spare time.
Albon supports former teammate Verstappen
In a press event attended by GPblog, Albon talked about his experiences with Verstappen: "Every driver has their own technique or style, approach to racing. Some drivers want to crunch the data, and others perform better when they're more free-minded. I think Max may fall more towards that side of things. He's a pretty relaxed individual for the most part. I remember in 2021 when they were fighting for their title, still very impressively relaxed. I wouldn't have been as relaxed as him, that's for sure. But yeah, I mean, it's not my place to say, but I do think he's a... I don't really see much of an issue with what he does behind the scenes."
Albon therefore sees no problem with the Dutchman's night-time sim racing. "I mean, we get up pretty late on Sundays! It's pretty relaxed! I don't know, I think it's just who you are. I think it's really hard to say one driver should do one thing because that's the norm or that's what's expected."
In fact, the Williams driver has learned that being a little more relaxed actually helps with performance. "If there's anything I've learned from my work in motorsport, it has been, in the beginning when I first joined F1, I wanted to know everything, I had a notebook, I wrote all the things, I memorised everything. And as I've gotten older, I've realised actually, the more I kind of just relax into it and just not put so much pressure on myself and emphasis on myself, then the results came more natural. So there are different ways, I would say. I don't know, 3 a.m., is it too much? I don't know. I don't know what time he wakes up on a Sunday," Albon said.
This article was written in collaboration with Olly Darcy