Team mate of Verstappen falls short: 'Not a perfect number two'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
The conversation about the second driver at Red Bull Racing has been going on for almost two years. Where Max Verstappen is the clear number one Pierre Gasly and Alexander Albon have been unable to stay close to him. Olav Mol gives his view on this situation.
Mol enjoys Verstappen
When Daniel Ricciardo left Red Bull Racing at the end of 2018 it was to be Gasly replaced him. However, the young Frenchman made a lot of mistakes and after six months of hard work he was replaced again. Albon was a bit steadier but the gap to Verstappen is getting bigger and bigger. Is Verstappen so good or are the opponents just not good enough?
''Verstappen maximises everything in it and, if I think back for a moment, is actually faultless. Max wants to get out and not have to say to himself: if I had still done that, it would have been even better," said Olav Mol to Formule1.nl. Because of this the team knows what it has to work on when Verstappen does not win, namely the car.
Albon is too sweet
With his teammate it is a completely different story. In qualifying, Albon is about six tenths behind Verstappen on average and the gap was even more than a second in Russia. In the race Albon didn't have the pace of his teammate and where Verstappen can fight for the podium, the Thai driver is more likely to end up in midfield.
''He is too nice. Albon is an incredibly neat and nice guy. Not a killer. He's too far away from Max. Albon is a good number two, but not the perfect one. I know that Verstappen is not someone who says: 'I need a good teammate', but that's until the day it happens," concluded the commentator of Ziggo Sport.