Albon is disappointed: 'Without that I would've finished ahead of Leclerc'

Due to the bad weather, the free practice sessions on Friday didn't take place. As a result, a number of plans have been crossed out, including Red Bull's plan to compare new upgrades with older versions.

To close the gap with Mercedes, the Red Bull Racing team have brought several upgrades to the Eifel Grand Prix. Due to the bad weather, the team was only able to measure the effect badly, Alexander Albon says during a press event organised by Red Bull.

"We can't compare it to the previous package without the Friday running. Normally, the plan was to run the cars with the old package against the new package so with limited running we've just started on it. But it feels good, it feels quick. In FP3 it was feeling pretty strong straight away so yeah I was happy with it and it's a good step forward which puts us a lot closer to the Mercs," the British Thai explained.

Upgrades tested immediately in qualifying

In addition to testing the upgrades in FP3, Red Bull were also able to get started on them right away in qualifying. In Q3, Albon was just short of fourth place on the grid. "It wasn’t one of my greatest Q3 lap. Car seemed very strong actually, I was happy with the balance, there was obviously a couple of things but that’s what happens when you only do one practice session. With this track temp you’re always on the limit of opening up the tyre in terms of graining and things like that. It’s tricky to manage," continues the driver of RBR.

"I mean there was definitely time on the table and if I hooked it up a bit better, I made a bit of a mistake on the last corner. Without that I’m sure we could have been ahead of Charles Leclerc," Albon concludes.