Alexander Albon: ‘Driving Formula 1 cars isn’t the biggest adjustment in F1’

Alex Albon is the antithesis of the typical F1 driver. Friendly and down to earth, he offered a genuine smile as he approached, hand outstretched.

“It’s my first time driving up the Hill,” he professed immediately. “I really enjoyed it!”

Alex was fresh from his run in the E Prototype, Honda’s cheerful electric city car, which the manufacturer is championing as the future of urban mobility.

How was the drive, I asked the man who is more accustomed to his Honda-powered Scuderia Toro Rosso STR14. “It was good fun, it’s a cool track and just a really cool event,” he said. “Although,” he added with a cheeky grin, “I had some CEOs next to me so I had to drive a bit steady…”

And what of the car? “Good – it was obviously very futuristic. As it’s electric, torque was actually pretty impressive, getting off the line and acceleration was quick and then it felt like a go-kart. I think it’s quite a driver’s car, it’s quite nimble. It’s heavy but it feels light.”

Electric isn’t an entirely alien concept to the 23-year-old. Before joining Toro Rosso, he was signed with Nissan e.dams for the 2018–19 Formula E season. Despite being released before the season began, Albon did get behind the wheel of the electric race car in pre-season testing. So how did the little Honda E compare?

“Firstly the thing which takes a long time to get used to is the lack of noise. In Formula 1, you depend so much on noise to drive quickly, that it becomes a normal instinct, but in both the Formula E and the Honda E Prototype its weird that you can hear the tyres screech and you’ve got no kind of engine noise with it.
“Acceleration is quite similar, both are very torquey. Of course the Formula E has a bit more grip and everything, but that is a racing car.”

Albon seemed impressed with the E Prototype, but was he impressed enough to choose it as a hypothetical company car – over the likes of an NSX, for example?

Laughing, he pretended to ponder the question. “Well, I’d have an NSX – it’s hybrid technology in the end, so it’s still electric and who doesn’t love an NSX! But for my parents and my sisters, I’d definitely, definitely get a Honda E. Actually, I need to ask Honda for one…”

The London-born Thai driver mentions his family often – the mum who would soothe him as an infant with re-runs of Schumacher championship reviews and the dad who introduced him to the sport.

“My Dad dabbled in Touring cars, he was in the British Touring Cars for a bit and then he moved over to Asia to race a little bit as well, so he was a bit of a, let’s say, Jack of all trades,” he explains.

“I was 7-years-old when he bought me my first kart. It’s quite funny, because it was actually a Honda-powered four-stroke, so I’ve kind of gone full circle with my motorsport career.

“We lived in the countryside and he would put bricks in a field next door to us and I’d just do a figure of eight – that was really how I started, and from there I moved to a track when I was eight years old.”

But Formula 1 has always been the ultimate goal, and so when the opportunity arose to join the Toro Rosso team for 2019, Albon jumped at it, achieving the status of the second ever Thai driver in Formula 1, after Prince Bira in the 1950s. How does that feel, I asked?

“It’s very cool,” he announced humbly. “I was in Thailand recently and it kind of hit me then how there was a public freak out. It was so weird to me, but it meant a lot to see the incredible support that I do have there. It’s nice to represent my home country, I’m really proud.”

“I’ve wanted to be a Formula 1 driver since when I was 6 years old,” he explained. “One of my first words was ‘Rarri – short for Ferrari – and then I moved on to an obsession with Ferrari. Everything had to be red; I had a red bed, red carpet, red walls and had to wear a red T-shirt. And obviously being a fan of Ferrari, I was a fan of Schumacher, because he was my generation’s hero, and if I didn’t eat my vegetables, my mum would say Michael Schumacher eats his vegetables…”

From karts, Albon graduated to Formula Renault, Formula 3, GP3 and finally Formula 2, before arriving in F1 at the start of this season. The transition, while seamless in some respects, proved eye-opening for Albon.

“Actually the step-ups in all categories driving-wise are quite seamless – it’s weird but the driving almost comes last in terms of the difficulty to adjust to something.

“It’s the out of driving stuff – the fan stuff, the media stuff, the scheduling – that’s so much different and it’s so much more hectic and that’s what took the most getting used to, truthfully, and I’m still not used to it!”

Halfway through his debut season, Albon is performing well. He currently sits 15^th in the Championship, with a best place of 8^th at the Monaco Grand Prix. Yesterday, he achieved a 12^th place finish at Silverstone’s British GP.

“Yeah, it’s going well,” he agreed. “For a rookie I’m happy with how it’s been going, I think it started off well and now we’re at the part of the season where we just need upgrades to stay competitive, but these are coming and I’m sure we’ll be strong when we get them on the car. We know there’s more potential in the car itself, so it’s just a matter of unlocking the car’s potential in terms of set up and downforce.”

Any stand out races, I asked? “The Chinese Grand Prix was my best race. I started from the pitlane because I crashed really heavily in Free Practice, and from starting from the pitlane I finished tenth. I was named the driver of the day, which was quite cool as my first award in Formula 1. And it was a good reward for the team after crashing the car.”

When he isn’t talking race tactics or simulator practicing, Albon spends much of his time working out, taking part in five sessions a week of strength, cardio and mobility – the latter to combat the cramped conditions he faces as a tall driver in the cockpit. His diet and health is closely monitored by professionals, to the extent of regular blood tests to make sure he is ticking okay. And with his team comes the status of being a Red Bull athlete, something which Albon claims isn’t without its challenges.

“Of course being a Red Bull driver, you have to perform, that’s no secret in the Red Bull programme. But I’m enjoying it, there’s a lot of cool things about Red Bull – the cool events that we go to and it’s just how big the Red Bull world is with all their athletes, that is very cool.”

Does he admire any other Red Bull Athletes in particular? “Lindsey Vonn is incredible for having stayed so competitive for so long.”

What about Marc Marquez? “Marquez is, of course, a freak of nature,” Albon exclaimed. “I’m personally a Rossi fan, but of course you cannot hide the fact that he is insanely talented, and it kind of scares me when I see him against his teammates how much of a gap he has, it worries me how someone can be so quick.”

As time ran out on our interview, I snuck in one more question – ‘so Marquez is a Honda rider but you prefer Yamaha?’ Laughing, he admitted: “I prefer Rossi, not so much the bike. I’m just a big Rossi fan – who isn’t…?”

Photography by James Lynch and Motorsport Images.