Alex Albon explained his role in Max Verstappen’s championship win, and revealed that his duties increased as the season heated up.
Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton contested a titanic battle for the world championship. In a title race that saw the lead change hands several times, it was ultimately the Dutchman who prevailed after the latter overturned a 21-point lead to race for glory on the final day.
Naturally, a world championship is a team effort, and Red Bull backed ‘Super Max’ spectacularly. In the RB corner was the Thai driver, who supported the world champion throughout the season.
Albon explained his role in Verstappen’s championship win, and said that as the title race approached the end, he had to work more often.
“We spent a lot of time in the simulator last winter to make our car more stable than 2020’s and to address the main weaknesses,” he told the Dutch branch of Motorsport.com.
“In 2020 the car was still quite tricky, especially because of the fickle rear. Of course, the rules for the adapted floor helped us, but at the same time we really maximised our own package.”
Workload
“As the title race got more exciting, we refocused our work on this year’s car,” the former Red Bull driver continued.
“In any case, we did more for the races in Jeddah and Abu Dhabi than we would in the simulator for a normal race weekend. Fortunately, that worked out very well.”
“This title feels great, also for me. The guys worked so incredibly hard, not just me but everyone in the factory. And yes, it just feels great to be rewarded for that.
“Even though I only contributed 0.1 per cent to the end result, it was not in vain and this success gives me great satisfaction,” he concluded.