Lewis Hamilton blamed for “massively” shattering Alex Albon’s confidence by Helmut Marko

Helmut Marko blames Lewis Hamilton for shattering Alex Albon's confidence when the latter drove for Red Bull. Hamilton and Albon came together on two separate incidents, with the latter losing out on a podium position on both occasions.

Alex Albon made his F1 debut with Toro Rosso (now AlphaTauri) in 2019. Midway through the season, he swapped seats with Pierre Gasly in the second Red Bull seat. Albon thus earned his call-up to the senior team in his rookie campaign, as he was teamed up with Max Verstappen.

The Thai driver was in podium contention in the 2019 Brazilian GP, as he was second only to teammate Verstappen with two laps left for the checkered flag. However, on the restart, Lewis Hamilton in P3 hooked his right rear tire, spinning him off the track as he tumbled down the order.

In the Austrian GP the following year, a repeat of the incident occurred between the two drivers. Albon, who put a daring overtake on the outside of Lewis Hamilton, was shoved into the gravel, losing all hopes for his maiden podium finish. The Mercedes driver was penalized on both occasions.

Red Bull's head honcho Helmut Marko believes the two incidents affected Albon's confidence. Making an appearance on the Inside Line F1 podcast, Marko reckoned Albon lost a P2 finish in Brazil and a race win in Austria.

"He was turned around by Hamilton and that hit his confidence massively. A P2 and a win was on the table," he said.

With the lost podiums and lowered confidence levels, Albon performed inconsistently for the rest of the season. He salvaged two podiums later in the season in Tuscany and Bahrain.

Max Verstappen wrapped up the 2020 F1 season finishing third in the drivers' standings with two wins. But the Thai driver was seventh with no wins and half the points scored by the lead driver.

With Albon proving to be no improvement over Pierre Gasly, he subsequently lost his seat to Sergio Perez. He remained on the sidelines for the following season, joining Williams in 2022.

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Damon Hill claims Lewis Hamilton has the best racecraft on the current F1 grid

Fernando Alonso, Max Verstappen, and Lewis Hamilton

With three world champions in the current grid, former F1 champion Damon Hill compared Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso, and Lewis Hamilton's racecraft. While hailing Verstappen's outright pace and Alonso's awareness, he put the Mercedes driver's racecraft above the two.

"I think it’s Lewis...I think the thing is with Lewis is that in a race, he’s able to produce stunning laps when he needs to, I don’t know Fernando’s still got that ability to do that." Hill said on the F1 Nation podcast.

"So if you say to Lewis ‘we’ve got a target and this is it’, he manages to pull it out somehow."

In the drivers' standings, Verstappen currently leads Alonso in third by a huge margin and Hamilton in fourth.