Albon: "I was chasing Verstappen in qualifying"
- GPblog.com
Having qualified in fifth, Alexander Albon achieved one of his best performances in qualifying this year. According to the British Thai, he didn't take full advantage of Max Verstappen's slipstream in Q3.
On a track with many straights like Spa-Francorchamps, it is important for the drivers to stay in the slipstream of the car in front of them. Good teamwork can make all the difference in qualifying.
According to Alexander Albon, this was excellent for most of qualifying. "We have done a good job when it comes to the position on track throughout qualifying. The last run in Q2 was good, but in Q3 I was just too far away from Max Verstappen to take advantage of the tow. I was chasing him a bit. I was almost three or four tenths behind him in the first sector and I tried to win that back in the rest of the lap," the driver from Red Bull Racing told the media in a video call, including GPblog.com.
Working on tire management
During the Grand Prix of Belgium the rain can also play a major role. Fortunately, according to Albon, the RB16 is a good car in wet conditions. "I like oversteer and on a wet track it will work well, but with these tyres and these cars you don't really need oversteer to be fast in the rain".
Regardless of how fast the Red Bull is in the race, it will be important for the driver to be good with his tyres. That's where Albon's biggest problem was in Barcelona. "We looked at some things, especially the balance and setup of the car. We could see that I was putting a lot of pressure on the rear tyres and we did some research to see what made that happen and worked on it. It looks like we are now back to the situation in Silverstone," concluded the young driver hopefully.