Alex Albon Exposes Max Verstappen’s Teammate Killer Approach to Bust Age Old Myth: “Not Easy to Get Along”

Over the years, the Red Bull second seat was under a lot of scrutiny. The fact that the Milton Keynes outfit had to burn through 3 drivers in as many seasons starting in 2018, created a lot of rumors. One of the most popular rumors that made rounds is the fact that Red Bull built the car to only suit Max Verstappen. Therefore, thanks to Verstappen’s unique driving style, other drivers couldn’t emulate the same and therefore were consistently off the pace.

As Alex Albon recently revealed, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Speaking in the High Performance podcast, he goes into the nitty gritty of what makes Verstappen such a dominant force, and why that Red Bull is one of the best cars on the grid.

Red Bull was not built around Max Verstappen

“A lot of people say that the car is built around him. That he is like the Michael Schumacher of Ferrari, that he’s created this team around him. Truthfully, the car is what it is. He is very quick,” explains Albon. Expanding on what makes Max quick, he compared the driving styles of the two drivers. Albon added, “What ends up happening is he has quite a unique driving style actually. It’s not easy to get along with.”

While both drivers enjoy snappy, sharp front ends – the Dutchman’s demands are just on another level. Albon likens it to cranking up the sensitivity on the computer mouse, and how it becomes “so sharp that you end up becoming tense.”

The Thai driver revealed that over the course of the season, as the car becomes sharper, Max becomes faster. So, as the season evolved, it became that much more difficult for the other driver. While he might have been off by a tenth or so at the early stages, it begins a downward spiral of wanting to quicker, the car overreacting to the inputs, sending spins, causing crashes, etc.

“It’s like any sport. If you start to not be in that flow state. And you start to have to think about it every time you’re going into the corner.” he explains. “It doesn’t work, it never works.”

Also read: “I Knew I Belonged”: Alex Albon Recalls Short-Lived Ecstasy Before Max Verstappen Caused Red Bull Exit

However, things have changed since Albon’s stint with Red Bull in 2020. Recently, during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, current Formula E world champion, Jake Dennis took Verstappen’s car around for a spin. His revelations further broke this myth down a lot more, as the car has cemented itself as one of the best cars in Formula 1 history.

Red Bull’s dominant RB19

After his 60-minute session on Free Practice 1 of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Jake Dennis made his thoughts very clear. “Honestly, just jumping in this car today – obviously I don’t drive F1 cars, I do a lot of simulator work – but you jump in this car and it just completely feels natural,” he said to the live stream on F1 TV.

He elaborated, “I don’t agree when people say ‘Are the cars designed for Max?’ I jumped in that thing today and it felt exactly like how a race car should. It does what you want it to do, it turns the way it should turn. I think people who are often skeptical to jump to conclusions of ‘This car is purely built for Max’ –  it’s really not the case.” 

He then explained the philosophy that every team on the planet would go into when building a car. Build the fastest car possible, and trust the drivers, especially with the caliber of Max Verstappen, to be able to extract the maximum out of the car. “That’s exactly what Red Bull have done and Max, obviously the talent he is, has done that.” 

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Albon is long gone from the Red Bull scheme of things. At Williams, he seems to find his feet brilliantly & make a name for himself quietly. But, will he ever be able to compete at the front with the likes of Verstappen?