Alex Albon says his previous experience of spending a period out of a full-time Formula 1 drive means he can relate to Daniel Ricciardo’s current experience.
After impressing in the first half of his rookie season at Red Bull’s sister squad in 2019, then known as Toro Rosso, Albon was parachuted into the senior team during the summer break in place of Pierre Gasly.
Despite doing enough to retain his drive for 2020, Albon struggled hugely throughout the Covid-delayed campaign and was dropped at the end of the year for Sergio Perez.
Following a year on the sidelines as Red Bull’s reserve driver, Albon returned to the grid with Williams in 2022 and has established himself as a valued team leader for the rebuilding Grove side.
Ricciardo, who was ousted by McLaren at the end of 2022, commenced his F1 comeback with AlphaTauri in Hungary in place of Nyck de Vries and admitted the break had served him well.
Asked if he can relate to what Ricciardo has gone through, Albon said: “Definitely. He’s had, in some ways, I had a year out, he’s had a bit less, but I really do think that year helped me, when you’re in the circus, and things aren’t going well, race to race to race you’re not really able to reflect and understand really what’s going on and feel like you’re in the washing machine a little bit.
“Having that time, it’s important to reflect and improve, but also important to get time away and fully reset mentally, the reset is important, you start to lose confidence, and having time away gets rid of the demons in some respects.
“I valued DTM as it was driving something a little bit different, it gave me confidence in a different way, I was still driving a racing car, still needed to be confident, and driving that car did that for me, then my first winter test back in a Williams straight away felt like I started more confidently than I left, it makes sense, seeing Daniel and the buzz he has, I think that’s happened to him as well.”
Ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, Williams had scored points in two of the three races since introducing an extensive upgrade package to Albon’s car in Canada, with Albon peaking with seventh in Montreal.
But the Grove team expectedly struggled more at the slower-speed Hungaroring circuit last weekend and both cars were eliminated in Q1 during Saturday qualifying.
However, Albon impressed on Sunday to progress to an eventual finishing position of 11th and the ex-Red Bull driver remains confident that Williams can soon become competitive on every configuration of circuit.
“P11 is quite a surprising result, it was quite a defensive race which we like to do,” he said. “We got track position and we were okay; we came into this circuit knowing it wouldn’t suit us and we qualified where the pace of the car was.
“Clean air is so important around here; even though I pitted early, once I had clean air, I had a lot of laps to bed the tyre in slowly so once I came out and undercut the other cars, I had some grip left and could manage them behind me.
“We’ve highlighted the areas our car struggles with by coming here, so when the car doesn’t feel great, it’s still raceable. To finish P11 and almost make Q2 yesterday, it’s a very good sign, so if we can fix these issues, then we’ll be in a good place across various circuits.”
Alfa Romeo threatened to record a double points haul in Hungary after both drivers secured starting spots inside the top seven for Sunday’s race.
The Italian outfit walked away empty-handed, however, protecting Williams’ hold on seventh spot in the Constructors’ Championship.
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