Alexander Albon reckons an “unlucky” strategy cost him a shot at taking a points finish on his debut in Formula 1.
Albon has stepped up to Formula 1 with Toro Rosso this season having placed third in last year’s Formula 2 championship.
The Anglo-Thai driver had out-qualified team-mate Daniil Kvyat but a Soft/Medium strategy dropped him behind a train of cars that were hampered by the yet-to-stop Antonio Giovinazzi.
He also lost another position when a moment through Turn 9 handed the more optimum line to Racing Point’s Sergio Perez, and the Anglo-Thai came home in 14th position.
“Reflecting on the whole weekend, I’m happy,” said Albon.
“The race didn’t go quite as we wanted it to, but looking back I don’t think there’s anything we could have done differently.
“I think points were possible with strategy… I’m not saying it was a bad strategy, we were just unlucky. We had [Lando] Norris, Giovinazzi, Perez and myself in a train and we spent four laps there.
“I think we lost three or four second per lap behind them, so all the people that were on clear track got past us.
“Obviously, it’s not easy to overtake on this track, so I spent most of my race behind an orange or a pink rear wing.
“I’m happy with the final result, I think there are a lot of good things to take into Bahrain.”
On how he approached his maiden Formula 1 race, Albon said: “I was calm before the start, a lot calmer than I expected.
“I think it was so busy I didn’t have time to think about the race. I was surprised, you never expect that.
“I had a good night’s sleep, I was quite relaxed going into the race. It was Ok, the main thing was that I knew all the procedures, I knew the strategy, there were no doubts and I was just focused on the driving.”
