Alexander Albon believes the opportunity to drive Red Bull’s car outside of a race weekend once the season ends will help him improve his performance.
He joined the team during the summer break and has been confirmed as a full-time driver for the 2020 F1 season. However Albon says he is still working out how to get the most out of the RB15 and the team, and the chance to go testing will help that.“I’m still finding areas in the car where which I know I need to work on and just feel more comfortable with,” he said. “But I know that’s [down to] seat time and that’s playing around with different things. Just finding that happy middle place where I’m confident in the car and I’m feeling like I can really extract that performance out of it.
“I know it’ll take time, but that’s also why I’m looking forward to the testing post-season in Abu Dhabi and even when we have our pre-season testing. Of course it’s not that easy to do a lot of changes during a race weekend just because you have very limited time and not much time to experiment with the car.”
On average, Albon has been around half a second slower than team mate Max Verstappen in qualifying. But he expects to get faster as he spends more time at the wheel.
“I think it’s just general driving really,” he said. “Once I can start to really push the car I will feel comfortable. That’s when the lap time will pick up.”
Albon said he tried not to get distracted by speculation about his future at the team before his place was confirmed and he intends to carry on doing the same.
“The way I’ve been thinking about things, I’m just trying to be very in the present and not thinking about all the external stuff.
“It even carries on for now, I think I’ll just keep on doing what I’m doing for the rest of the season and then onto next year. Because knowing or not knowing wouldn’t have changed the situation, it’s still the results that count and that was my focus.”
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Jere (@jerejj)
26th November 2019, 7:45
Well, the post-season test is only for two days, and it’s for a car that isn’t going to be used for racing anymore, so the pre-season testing is the better one for that, but any track-time still works.
MacLeod (@macleod)
26th November 2019, 7:51
You know the rules 2020 are the same as this year so i think every team is going to experiment a lot before the end of the season.
Chaitanya
26th November 2019, 8:02
No rule changes for 2020 are certainly going to help Albon in learning more about the car in pre season testing. Also he can spend time on simulator.
erikje
26th November 2019, 22:43
trying all kind of settings without pressure is ideal to get to know a car.
So this end of season testing will tell him where there is room for improvement.
Micah97
26th November 2019, 8:03
It’s not that easy. This year’s Red Bull has had a bit less downforce than others and like the Haas,it has a very specific window of operation that Max has been able to get into.
Reducing the gap to Max in quali won’t be easy because even Max took around 2 years to be able to comfortably beat Dan in quali.
Matn
26th November 2019, 18:40
To be exact…it took Verstappen no more than 8 races to get on top of Dan in quali.
After the summer stop in 2016 the balance shifted, in the next year(s) more and more dramatically
Ross
26th November 2019, 20:52
Like Mexico.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
26th November 2019, 8:53
Well, once the driver and team hook up nicely teammate has very little to do to get it right.
This season we had a chance to admire how Hamilton, Leclerc and Verstappen all had dialed in their cars and were much faster than anyone else over their top weekends.
Teammates were left eating dust.
Only Facts!
26th November 2019, 9:10
Although too tiny for real life, 0.5 sec is a very big gap for modern F1. In a perfect race, he would finish 30 sec behind his teammate driving the same car.
From good to great the gap has been around 0.2 sec in those semi-automatic-gearbox, point-and-turn type cars.
But of course we’re talking qualifying here. In the race there is traffic, tyre and fuel saving, contacts, failures… And so far Albon racked more points than Verstappen in the races before Brazil. Consistency always pay in F1. Just ask Fittipaldi, Lauda, Prost, Button…
Robbie (@robbie)
26th November 2019, 12:09
I’m sure Albon will get consistently better with more car time, while Max is also showing that he consistently challenges Mercedes and Ferrari when he is not starting from the back for component penalties or getting hit out of races. Consistency pays for sure, especially when you are consistently bringing in podium level points.
Adam (@rocketpanda)
26th November 2019, 12:25
Given he came into that car halfway through the year – of his very first year in F1, I think the .5 gap to the guy a lot of people consider among the best on the current grid is a pretty decent achievement. Closing that gap down for next year is literally the only job he’s got to do, but even if he fails and can just stick with the consistency of finishing just behind Verstappen and scoring well I think Red Bull would be pretty happy with that.
Robbie (@robbie)
26th November 2019, 13:18
@rocketpanda For sure. I’m sure AA being with the team for the post-season test, the off-season sim work, and the pre-season testing, is going to see him do very well next year. Max is a phenom for all the drivers not just AA, but that doesn’t mean AA can’t have standout performances of his own.
ADUB SMALLBLOCK (@waptraveler)
26th November 2019, 12:56
If I were to drive a Formula 1 car (assuming they could hog out the driver’s compartment for me to get in it!), I believe I would improve over two years also. And I would still be terrible.
ADUB SMALLBLOCK (@waptraveler)
26th November 2019, 13:03
How the heck do I delete my own comment! I meant for this to be on the article about Stroll! My dumbass!
Carlos Medrano (@carlosmedrano)
26th November 2019, 14:21
No way red bull would allow that
erikje
26th November 2019, 23:13
oh yes, they just look for a worthy Ricci replacement or better.
No one wants another crushed driver that fled the battle.
And regarding ricci:
Looking at the very tiny difference between ricci and Hulk its nothing special anymore.
DonSmee (@david-beau)
26th November 2019, 22:46
Good job so far for a rookie jumping into a new car half way thru the season. I think he shoukd be able to match Max more often than not next year.
Pjotr (@pietkoster)
27th November 2019, 13:35
Well a couple of safety cars will get him closer to Ves then trying to outrun Ves in a race.