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Alex Albon has made a solid start to the 2022 season and has even scored a point for Williams already. Having said that, things were not always this great for the Red Bull academy driver. He was left out by Red Bull in favor of Sergio Perez for the 2021 season and as a result, he went to every race last year only to watch from the sidelines.
On the Beyond the Grid podcast, Alex Albon revealed that the situation was not great for him, although both Helmut Marko and Christian Horner had faith in the driver. The 26-year-old said:
“It killed me. It killed me, it was terrible. It was one of those things – it got announced that I wasn’t going to be a racing driver pretty late, I think it was December. They still believed in me and still trusted me, Christian [Horner] and Helmut [Marko], everyone at Red Bull, and I still have a great relationship with them. But on my side, it was more or less like: ‘I want to be in F1. I feel like I’m the hungriest driver I know, how can I get back into it?’”
The Thai-British driver talked about his mindset then and how he would look at the two Red Bull drivers from a distance and try to learn whatever he could. Albon said:
“What was also important was just listening to Max [Verstappen] and Checo [Sergio Perez]; I’d always listen to their engineers… and I would take bits from it. As people, their personalities – how did they interact with the team and how did they learn? It was quite interesting to have that step back away from the spotlight and from the paddock in that way, and look at things in a different perspective.”
Alex Albon feels like he contributed to Red Bull's championship-winning 2021 car
Alex Albon was always a constant presence in the Red Bull garage during 2021, despite not having a racing seat. As the Milton Keynes-based team's test driver, he would consistently provide feedback about the car and where improvements could be made. Hence, when the 2021 challenger finally proved to be as good as it was, Albon felt he had a contribution to that.
He said:
“The car was quick out the blocks… Max [Verstappen] was talking about how much better the rear felt, how much more stable it was. It does hurt a little bit, because at the same point you’re like, ‘That’s great, I feel like I contributed to that.’”
Albon is currently racing for Williams and has been putting together strong performances this season. Is a future seat at Red Bull still a possibility? With the kind of faith Horner and Marko have in Albon, it's not beyond the realms of imagination.
