Alex Albon has theorised that Red Bull’s second drivers who have been promoted from Racing Bulls have struggled due to the latter’s more “forgiving” Formula 1 cars.
The Anglo-Thai driver was himself a victim of issues at the Milton Keynes-based squad, having lost his seat after just one full season in 2020 after being unable to be sufficiently within performance range of Max Verstappen.
He succeeded Pierre Gasly, who lasted little more than half a season, and just this year, Liam Lawson was removed after just two races in favour of Yuki Tsunoda, who is now in the midst of an existential crisis with the RB21.
The similarity between all four men is that they had all been promoted from their satellite outfit (then Toro Rosso), and found that the Red Bull counterpart is a different beast to drive.
Ahead of this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix, Albon explained his reasoning for why, upon promotion to Red Bull, there appears to be a trend of evidently talented drivers struggling to cope where Verstappen excels.
“I think the car’s on a knife edge,” the Williams driver told media including Motorsport Week. “I think Max can drive it.
“Obviously I can speak from experience. I struggled with it. I think with the experience I have now I’d be able to get around it.
“But it’s not something that feels that natural to most drivers. I think that’s what you’re seeing now.
“I think that it’s also difficult because partly, maybe it’s my own interpretation of it, but the RB is quite a forgiving car.
“I mentioned it before in 2019. It’s quite well balanced. It’s very stable, it gives you a lot of confidence. I think it’s naturally become that kind of car because they always have rookies in that car.
“The foundations of the team is built on young drivers. And then the Red Bull is almost the extreme. You’re going from one of the cars that are forgiving to tricky in the most simple sense. So you’re having to adapt quite a lot to two very different cars.”
‘Understanding’ Red Bull machinery and ‘noise’ of being number two
Amid Tsunoda’s struggles, Racing Bulls’ rookie revelation Isack Hadjar has now been shunted into the forefront of the rumour mill, with speculation that he is the next man in the queue to earn the drive alongside Verstappen.
Despite being only nine races into his F1 career, the Frenchman has impressed sufficiently to warrant reports that he may be the next man to be promoted.
However, Hadjar told media including Motorsport Week that he does not “feel ready” for the step up, and is hoping to gain more experience at the Faenza-based outfit to better position himself down the line.
Albon also intimated that perhaps a lack of experience when it comes to tackling a different car is a key problem with the Racing Bulls’ promotees, as well as the inevitable chatter from outsiders that comes with the job.
“I think the driving side is a part of it,” he said. “But especially the smaller parts of it. I think the bigger part of it is understanding the cars, the tyres, the engineering side of things. Your own driving style as well.
“These kind of things which when you start as a young driver, even in F1, you’re still discovering what makes the car great, what compromises or lack of compromises can you do to help me or not in that situation.
“Clearly Max can drive that car and he likes that particular way. It’s mostly the quickest way and he gets on with it and he can drive and make that lap time out of it. So there’s a bit of that going on.
“And it’s also the most simple thing, dealing with all the noise of being that number two driver, it’s not easy for a young driver to do.”
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