Alex Albon used statistics comparing his stint at Red Bull to that of Pierre Gasly and Sergio Perez to help seal his return to the F1 grid. The 27-year-old struggled against former team-mate Max Verstappen between 2019 and 2020, which saw him axed by Christian Horner and left without a seat.
Albon was drafted in mid-season to replace the faltering Gasly at Red Bull, although he struggled in much the same way as the Frenchman. Since Perez was awarded the second seat, the Mexican has also tried and failed to take the fight to Verstappen.
Perez’s arrival at the team signalled the end for Albon, who was consequently demoted to the role of test and reserve driver for the 2021 season. It wasn’t until he drew up a spreadsheet of statistics comparing his numbers to those of his predecessor and successor, and showed it to team principals, that he managed to secure his return to the big leagues with Williams.
“I kind of did something I think everyone would do in the same way as me,” Albon told the High Performance podcast.
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“I basically got statistics and research on Pierre Gasly, who I replaced myself in the team and then Sergio [Perez] at the time, who is currently in the seat. It was very simple statistics, but most of it was relative to Max so speed, qualifying, race, on an Excel sheet.”
Albon has been a star turn since signing up with Williams, bettering former team-mate Nicholas Latifi last year and dominating the Canadian’s replacement, Logan Sargeant, in 2023.
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His haul of 27 Drivers’ Championship points was by far the best of any F1 star competing for one of the bottom-four teams this year, and he has been tipped by some to be deserving of another crack in a more competitive machine.
Albon believes that his failure to make an impact at Red Bull stems partly from the way the car was set up to suit Verstappen’s unique driving style. “It’s not that easy to get along with,” he continued. “I would say 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, quite direct. Max does too. But his level of sharp and direct is a whole different level. It’s eye-watering. To give people kind of a maybe an explanation of what that might feel like, if you play computer games at all, if you bump up the sensitivity completely to the max and you move that mouse, it’s just darting across the screen everywhere.
“That’s kind of how it feels, it became so sharp that it makes you a little bit tense. And every time the car becomes sharper and sharper, you start to become more tense.”
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