Albon "finally" had no contact with Hamilton on his way to the podium
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Alexander Albon has achieved his very first podium in Formula 1 and that will come as a great relief. Albon had been saying for weeks that he wasn't listening to the criticism, but after the race, he went on to say 'thank you' to his team for maintaining confidence in him.
No contact with Hamilton
It is not easy for Alexander Albon. The Thai was selected last-minute by Toro Rosso to make his debut in Formula 1 in 2019 and he did so well that Red Bull Racing got him in mid-season as a replacement for Pierre Gasly.
"In a top team you have to perform at the top and Albon didn't always succeed in that. His speed often wasn't close to Verstappen and he was often unlucky at promising moments. ''Finally, a drive to the podium was not ended by contact with Lewis Hamilton," says Jolyon Palmer in the podcast Chequered Flag about the earlier collisions in Austria and Brazil.
Albon impresses on the track
''He had to fight hard for it because he had a bad start every time. However, he had a good move on Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo. However, it is difficult to say anything about his pace, because now there was no teammate to compare him to. His pace was surprising in the end though, because we hadn't seen that the whole race''.
Now that Albon has his first podium in his pocket, that might also give him a lot of confidence. Jolyon hopes so too and foresees a big step from Albon. ''I hope to see an Albon with a lot more confidence because he did really well this weekend'', the former Renault rider concludes.