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Albon: 'Verstappen and Lambiase sometimes tune the car in 15 minutes'

Albon: 'Verstappen and Lambiase sometimes tune the car in 15 minutes'

13-08-2022 16:29 Last update: 18:07
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GPblog.com

Alexander Albon has spoken highly of his former teammate against Formula1.nl. He sees the Dutchman as a driver who also has a good eye for technique. The British Thai could also not deny that there is a strong bond between the Dutchman and his engineer.

Albon and Verstappen have known each other for many years. They met in their karting days. The British Thai was allowed to make the switch to Red Bull Racing in the middle of 2019 at the expense of Pierre Gasly. In the end, he was Verstappen's teammate for only 26 races. While waiting for the seat at Williams, Albon was allowed to work a lot behind the scenes for Red Bull on the simulator last season. That way he could contribute to the best possible season with the world title of Verstappen as a result.

The Williams driver saw a mature Verstappen in his time as a team mate, who had also grown enormously on a technical level. "He is very strong on that level. First of all he can drive around problems very well. That is really impressive." Albon also believes that if a car is not good, Verstappen can still handle it well and this is partly due to years of experience, even if he is in fact still a young driver.

Inseparable bond

Since his switch to Red Bull, Verstappen has been working with engineer Gianpiero Lambiase. Albon saw an inseparable bond between the two. "The bond that Max has with his engineer (Gianpiero Lambiase, ed.) is impressive. They rarely talk about details, because they understand each other so well. During a race weekend they don't need to talk about the setup of the car for hours, sometimes they even have the car in order after ten or fifteen minutes."

Confidence in team

Albon also says that Verstappen is bursting with confidence in his team and that he is focusing on all the people behind the scenes who are working for him. This applies to both the people at the factory and on the track. "That creates a balance: Max works hard, but when he's not on a circuit, he wants to relax. That wayhe can focus on what matters, winning."