Albon Speaks On Speculations Of Red Bull Car Being Built Around Verstappen

Thursday, 30 November 2023 at 22:00

Williams driver Alex Albon addressed speculations concerning the Red Bull car being built around Max Verstappen after the super-dominant 2023 season.

Formula One 2023 season came to an end last week with the final race of the season, Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. As 18 other races in 2023, the Grand Prix has been won By Max Verstappen.

The Dutchman broke numerous records including the one for the biggest point difference between the first and the second place in the Drivers' Championship as he beat his own teammate Sergio Perez by 290 points.

Multiple fans have been speculating over the course of the 2023 season that Verstappen beats his teammates because the Red Bull car is built around him.

Williams driver Alex Albon had the opportunity to race alongside the Dutchman during seasons 2019 and 2020, so he has first-hand experience. He explained on the High Performance Podcast:

"The first thing is a lot of people say that car is built around him. Truthfully… the car is what it is, He has quite a unique driving style actually. It’s not that easy to get along with."

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The Williams driver compared Verstappen's style to playing computer games with maximum sensitivity settings. These settings might make you better, but it is incredibly difficult, maybe even uncomfortable to play games with maximum sensitivity.

"I don’t know if you guys play computer games at all, but if you bump up the sensitivity completely to the max and you move that mouse and it’s just darting across the screen everywhere… that’s kind of how it feels."

Albon explained this kind of car setup is incredibly was incredibly hard to drive for him as he became more and more "tense" every time the car got sharper.

"It becomes so sharp that it makes you a little bit tense and it just starts to snowball and every time the car becomes sharper and sharper you start to become more tense."

As Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said, the priority for his team is to give his drivers a car they will feel comfortable in. Albon explains that was not the case with him and Red Bull.

"And I think it’s like any sport, if you start to not be in that flow state and you’re having to really think about it, and every time you go into a corner you don’t know how it’s going to react, you don’t have that kind of… well it’s purely the confidence in the car, the flow, it doesn’t work."