The world knows Max Verstappen for his speed and aggression. The 2021 F1 World Champion is also known to be very determined and notorious on the track. However, many believe that the Dutchman is arrogant. Is it true? His former teammate reveals.

Alex Albon has recently opened up on his former teammate Max Verstappen. The Williams driver recalled his Red Bull days when he partnered with the defending F1 champion on the Austrian team. The duo raced together for one and a half years until Red Bull signed Sergio Perez from Racing Point in 2021.

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When asked if Verstappen is political on Spotify’s F1 Podcast Beyond The Grid, Albon conveyed, “No he’s not. Not at all. He’s very straightforward. One of the most straightforward, actually. He has a lot of self-confidence, and self-belief which you’d do if you wanna win the World Championship, but of course even before then. And he is in a position where he doesn’t need to be political, I think.”

“Truthfully speaking, because he can do the talking on the circuit. So people see him as maybe arrogant. I don’t think he’s at all. I think he’s very determined, very hungry, sure of himself, but he’s not arrogant. Like I said before, he can simply do the talking on the track really,” the former Red Bull driver further asserted.

How did the Max Verstappen – Alex Albon pair fare at Red Bull?

The 2019 season saw Red Bull pick Alex Albon over Pierre Gasly to partner with Verstappen. After just 12 races, the Austrian team dropped Pierre to Toro Rosso (current AlphaTauri) and brought Albon to Red Bull. There were high expectations from the Thai-British driver at the Milton-Keynes-based team as Gasly was dropped for the same.

With Max performing brilliantly, it got hard for Alex to catch him up, or even follow. Despite not making much improvement as compared to Pierre, the Red Bull management retained him for the 2020 season. The 2019 driver’s standings saw Albon finish behind Gasly, as the Frenchman bagged 95 points, 3 more than Albon.

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Gasly’s finished in P7 with a podium place under his belt, while Albon finished in P8 with a better car. As compared to them, Max finished in P3 with 278 points and 9 podiums. Talking about 2020, the current Williams driver made improvements as picked up 2 podiums and 105 points to finish the season in P7. However, Racing Point’s (now Aston Martin) Sergio Perez replaced the Thai-British driver in 2021.