The rhythm of Alexander Albon throughout the Grand Prix of Styria contains a part of mystery for his team, which explores the tracks which can explain it.
Red Bull Racing seeks to understand the difficulties encountered by Alexander Albon on the long stints, after a difficult Styrian Grand Prix for the Thai. One week after hanging up with Lewis Hamilton while playing for victory in Austria, Albon had a much more anonymous and complicated race on the same track. Never able to keep pace with the leaders, he finished in fourth place after having notably had to resist the return of Sergio Perez. He crossed the line 44 seconds behind the winner and 11 behind his teammate Max Verstappen, who nevertheless observed an additional pit stop.
The Milton Keynes team must address the reasons for this painful race, after having started to identify some tracks. Albon, for example, seems more comfortable with the RB16 when it is lightly loaded with fuel, which is confirmed by observing the two parts of its race.
“Alex had a two-stroke race”, even believes Christian Horner, director of Red Bull. “He was in trouble in the first half, and in the second he drove very well and his pace was good. We have to figure that out with him, and help him be more comfortable with the car when it is heavy with fuel because his pace in the second half of the race was solid. He fought very well against Pérez, who was then the fastest on the track. At this point, he was three or four tenths faster on lap than Bottas, who had less worn tires. “
According to Paul Monaghan, chief engineer of Red Bull, the difficulty for Albon is to adapt to variations in the balance of the car over the length of a relay: “We make a pit stop, put on new tires, and he says that the balance of the car is very good. The deterioration of this balance seems more important than for Max. We listened to his comments and they are very, very once again, his memory of turns and laps is most impressive. “
“We are not yet sure why [il a des problèmes]. He suffered a little more, then as you probably saw on television, he had blistering in the front right. He was trying to protect it while being as competitive as possible and attacking. I think, whatever the cause, we don’t really know what it is. But the drop in pace is slightly larger for Alex, at first glance. “
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