Albon dispels Verstappen myth: “People say the car is built around him”

Albon spent 18 months alongside Verstappen at Red Bull, struggling to get close to the ever-impressive Dutchman.

The current Williams man isn’t the only driver to have struggled alongside Verstappen, with both Pierre Gasly and Sergio Perez also failing to deliver.

One theory that has been put forward is that Red Bull specifically design their cars around Verstappen’s driving style of wanting a sharp front-end.

However, Albon has dispelled that myth in his interview 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 said.

“He has quite a unique driving style actually. It’s not that easy to get along with. My driving style is a bit more on the smooth side, but I like a car that has a good front end, so quite sharp, [and] quite direct. Max does too, but his level of sharp and direct is kind of another… it’s a whole different level. 

“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. 

“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. 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.”