F1 News

Albon on wet race in Japan: 'The worst I've experienced in my career'

13 October 2022 at 14:52
Last update 13 October 2022 at 15:19
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  • GPblog.com

Alexander Albon has never experienced such bad weather conditions as in Suzuka for the Japanese Grand Prix last weekend. The Thai driver retired on the very first lap of the race.

Albon was forced to park his Williams next to the track. The Thai came into contact with another car, causing a water leak. The race was flagged red after two laps when Carlos Sainz ended up in the wall. The race was only resumed after two hours of silence.

Speaking to Motorlat Albon reveals that the conditions were extremely treacherous. "It’s like you are driving in nothing, it’s so so bad out there, it’s the worst I’ve experienced in my career. So it’s one of them things of course you want to go racing but to what price, to what extent. I’m sure Formula 1, they want to get laps to count as a race but it’s playing with fire."

Extremely poor visibility for drivers at Suzuka

"What I can tell you from driving it, whatever you see on onboards, whatever you see externally it’s 100 times worse in the car", says Albon. Drivers' visibility was so poor at Suzuka that Albon had to focus on the white line marking the edge of the track. That was the only way the Williams driver could determine where he was on the track. Eventually, the race resumed with 40 minutes left on the clock. Max Verstappen crossed the finish line victorious, winning his second world title.