Alex Albon had F1 loyalties elsewhere: "My first word was Ferrari"

Alexander Albon has made an explosive rise on the Formula 1 season and this season he may call himself a real Red Bull Racing driver from the start in Australia. In his youth, however, he had chosen a different team.

Like most drivers in Formula 1, Albon has grown up with sports since childhood. The British Thai grew up when Michael Schumacher dominated at Ferrari and that has greatly influenced Albon in his younger years.

"Michael Schumacher is my favourite driver and Valentino Rossi from MotoGP. When I was younger, everything was red! I had a red kart, a red helmet, a red race suit, my bedroom was red, I had a red carpet, a red duvet, a red bed… it was absolutely nuts! Even little things, like my mum, would tell me ‘You need to eat your vegetables like Michael eats his.’ Even my first word was ‘Rrari’ which I probably shouldn’t even say but it was. Short for Ferrari," Albon said on Red Bull Racing's Q+A. 

"I went to my first Formula One race in Silverstone when I was about five years old. We were in a corner grandstand and there was a competition where we had to guess who would finish the race in the top three, so I just put my favourite three drivers in; Schumacher first, [Rubens] Barrichello second and [Pablo] Montoya was third. I think something really weird happened that race as Barichello was always going to qualify last, so no one put him as second and he ended up coming second in the race! So out of all of those people that participated, in their thousands, I was the winner."