Red Bull comes up with a striking line of thought about Alexander Albon.
After working on an oil rig or for a tanner in Bangladesh, being a teammate of Max Verstappen is about the most difficult job on earth. Our hero Max is now so fast in the Red Bulls that there is no way to prevent it. Ricciardo already felt it coming and wisely chose to run ahead. Then Red Bull needed a replacement and threw in Pierre Gasly and Alexander Albon Dutch Lion. But they got in no time startled.
Smoked up
For Pierre it took more than half a season. That was also because he had the misfortune of ‘being the first’. With today’s knowledge we know that Albon and an established F1 driver like Perez cannot compete with Max. And Pierre and Alexander have shown that they can certainly compete in F1. But at the time it seemed like the French GP2 champion couldn’t do anything at all. His replacement, with British and Thai roots, was given a little longer. But even though Albonio initially seemed to do better than Gasly in the races, the results were ultimately very similar. That’s how Perez came into the picture, but we now know how that works.
Not comparable to Verstappen
In fact, the Mexican is doing his two predecessors an enormous service. Such an earwash by a teammate usually means a major setback in, if not the end of, an F1 career. But being spanked by Max is now just ‘the expectation’. Even teammate Christian Horner says things like ‘you shouldn’t compare Perez with Verstappen’ when the Mexican fails to reach Q3 again. Quite special.
Better than second set
Anyway, Albon has shown over the past two seasons that he has no problem with drivers like Latifi and Sargeant. Now they are not the best drivers ever, but it at least confirms that AA23 is really no cakewalk. Due to his performances in the Williams, he is even linked with a new opportunity at a top team in the form of Ferrari. Although it now looks like they will continue there with Leclerc and Sainz. In any case, it raises the question of how things could go so ‘wrong’ at Red Bull for the former karting champion.
Mouse on amphetamine
Albon himself once said that Verstappen likes an extreme car. A car with so much oversteer that only he can handle it. The British Thai describes it as if you set the mouse on your computer to the highest sensitivity. An interesting theory. But Helmut Marko thinks it is something else. Namely to Lewis Hamilton:
He was second in Brazil in 2019 when Hamilton drove him off the track. The following year, Alex attempted to overtake Hamilton on the outside at the Red Bull Ring. But Hamilton knocked him into the gravel. He would have won that race otherwise. It took him a long time to recover from that. Alex is very fast, but maybe he’s too nice. He’s a bit like David Coulthard in that regard. Everyone likes him, but he’s not loud enough.
Helmut Marko has a tough head himself
Deo volente
Now it is indeed true that Alexander would have won that race in Austria. And who knows, in ten years it may turn out to have been his only chance at a victory. But would that have made a difference? A confidence boost is of course never bad for your performance. But Perez also wins sometimes. Then he is simply swept off the track by Max. It therefore seems a bit gratuitous for Marko to tease Hamilton. Something Der Helmut will continue to do for at least another three years, deo volente. Whose deed.
Comments
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Johanneke say
A bit far-fetched from Helmut, but I thought it was a sick stitching trick from Hamilton at the time. Albon did everything right there to win and Hamilton just didn’t let it. The real ego came to the surface again.
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Robert say
I mainly thought it was a sick trick by the FIA, which allowed Hamilton to get away with a 5(!) second penalty. Something that the FIA casually repeated in 2020 (Austria, again against Albon, as mentioned) and 2021 (Great Britain, the infamous ‘tap’ against Verstappen, in Copse Corner).
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