Windsor: "In my opinion the driver should get the best out of his engineer"
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Starting this weekend, Alexander Albon will drive with a new race engineer. Simon Rennie takes over from Mike Lugg in the hope that Albon improves and can fight for the podiums with Red Bull Racing. Peter Windsor was quite surprised by the change.
The driver has to get the best out of engineer and vice versa
"I was a bit nonplussed by Red Bull switching engineers for Alex Albon. And again I was surprised by this because Red Bull are pretty good at keeping a focus and getting a lot out of the drivers and demanding a lot from the drivers. But in my view it’s the drivers' job to get the best from the engineer with whom he’s working," says Windsor in his video after Friday.
"They’re all very, very good. They’re all F1-pitlane engineers. They’re all really, really clever sharp guys. And it’s not a question of chemistry and it’s not a question of confidence. It’s a question of the driver getting the best out of the engineer and obviously vice versa. And I don’t think after just three weekends of racing, I don’t think that’s the right thing to do," Windsor continued.
Improvements have to come now
"Having said that. Red Bull are not stupid. And if Alex doesn’t respond and improve as a result of having a different engineer. Of course, that’s not going to look very good for him at all and it adds up to the pressure that the drivers put themself under," concludes Windsor.