Rosberg is annoyed with Albon: 'He needs to focus on the podium!'
In qualifying for the Eifel Grand Prix it was again between the two Mercedes and Max Verstappen, while Alexander Albon could only manage P5. According to Nico Rosberg the gap with the Dutchman is way too big.
In all eleven qualifying sessions this year, Albon has never finished in front of his teammate. He is not expected to be quicker every weekend, because everyone knows what kind of talent he has to compete against. Still, the gap with Max Verstappen is very big.
Nico Rosberg is also unhappy with the performance of the Red Bull Racing driver. "In the last qualifying session he was one second slower than Max, now it was five tenths of a second. Even five tenths of a second is way too much after so many races," said the former Formula 1 driver at Sky Sports F1.
Albon's ambitions
Just before the end of qualifying, however, Albon was still in fourth place, but when Charles Leclerc finally crossed the line it became fifth place on the grid. The SF1000 is by no means a success story, but the Monegasque manages to pull out a great lap. "They seem to be getting stronger. They've certainly taken a step," Rosberg said of the Maranello team.
The fact that Albon didn't get fourth place doesn't frustrate the former world champion the most, but mostly where the driver's ambitions lie. "I don't like that he's focusing on fourth place in the race. I mean, he's got a Red Bull! So much can happen tomorrow. He should be aiming for the podium. He can do it," concluded Rosberg.
Rosberg is right, unfortunately. Even though Albon was deprive of podium twice by Hamilton, he is still far behind Verstappen and even those podiums wouldn't change much. Albon is too slow in qually and has far to many incidents during races. Every other week he tangles with somebody, and it's either partially his fault or something he could avoided if he were more careful. He already has entire collection of 5 sec penalties.
In the race he seems to lose a second a lap and only overtake decent cars after a SC.
Current F1 drivers can be grouped into 3 categories. The majority of the drivers would be in Group 2, whereby they are 'good drivers', otherwise they would not be in the sport at all. There are probably a couple of drivers in Group 3, whereby it would be surprising if they keep their seat for next year, as there are better options available. Then, there are the Group 1 drivers who are super talented and are the cream of the crop. These are drivers who are able to extract everything out of their car and make it perform better than expected. Max is definitely one of them, together with Charles and George. If there is a pretty large gap in qualifying lap times compared to their team mates, or out-qualifies their team mates all the time, then its the driver who is making the difference and it is difficult being their team mates as your times will alway make it seem that you are doing a poor job.
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