Albon: "My seat is not easy to fill"

In recent months several people have already said it: Alexander Albon has perhaps the most difficult seat in Formula 1. Of course that has everything to do with the fact that Max Verstappen excels time and again at Red Bull Racing. Albon is aware of the difficult task, but he sees his extremely competitive team mate as a positive thing.

"I know my seat is not easy to fill," Albon said in an interview on Red Bull's website. "Anyone can see that, but for me it’s just about how do you overcome it, how do you rise above it, how do you do a better job than other people who’ve gone before you."

According to the British Thai, those are the three most important elements. "Then it’s about not listening to the media, and after that it’s about knowing your own personal goals," sums up the 24-year-old driver. Albon says it's important to be able to cut yourself off from criticism. "You have to not look over your shoulder. You have to have a close connection with the people who can affect your performance like my race engineer, my data engineer and you have to make sure you stay in your bubble. Nothing anyone can do outside of that bubble will affect what you’re doing and you can just focus on the only thing that matters – your performance."

Albon enjoys competing against Verstappen

The fact that Verstappen is his teammate, is what the current number eight of the World Cup ranking is all about. "Also, you know, people see (being Max’s team-mate) as a negative, but you can look at the way I look at it, which is that there’s no better way to improve than to be up against one of the best", he concludes his story.