Formula One is the pinnacle of motorsport. It’s the survival of the quickest and Red Bull Racing is one of the teams at the top of the food chain where the competition is fierce, expectations sky-high and challenges unrelenting.
Alex Albon has learned that first hand having made the step up from junior team Alpha Tauri during the course of last season.
“Getting used to the noise in the paddock,” the Thai-British driver responds when asked what the most challenging aspect of joining Red Bull has been during a virtual interview powered by TAG Heuer.
“When you go into a top team, the first thing is that you’re under the spotlight a lot more. And there’s a lot more going on. When you’re going from what was Toro Rosso at the time, it’s kind of like, you can get away. You can make mistakes and no one really pays too much attention.
“But of course when you’re in a top team, everything is put into light. My initial reaction was ‘wow, there’s a lot of talking that goes on’. There’s a lot of media stuff when you’re at the top end. And it was something I had to get used to and I still am, truthfully. But I feel like the more races you do, the more experience you get. And you just get better and better at coping.”
On the other hand, his team-mate Max Verstappen is well-adjusted to such an environment having grown from strength to strength within it over six years.
Still only 23, the Belgian-Dutch superstar has remarkably garnered more F1 experience than over half the current grid. His tally of 118 races is bettered by only seven other drivers in the paddock.
“You get better but just purely because of experience,” Verstappen tells Sport360 ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix upon reflection of his F1 career.
“You really have had a lot of moments throughout every weekend where you learn, you make mistakes, you do well. You know, all these kinds of things make you a better driver in the end.”
Despite his substantial experience, nothing could’ve prepared Verstappen – or even the most seasoned drivers – for the testing nature of this year’s pandemic-hit season.
COVID-19 saw the 2020 campaign, meant to begin in March, suspended before finally getting under way in July. But during those months in lockdown, both Red Bull drivers adopted alternative means of preparation.
“In those months I did a lot of sim racing. Maybe not racing in real life on track but I was definitely on the simulator,” Verstappen recalls.
Albon did likewise but needed more to keep himself occupied.
“We were one of the first sports to get up and running but in the meantime, I was getting really bored. I made a golf net, at the back of my garden to hit some golf balls and I made a gym in my garage.”
Something F1 fans became accustomed to during the lockdown period was watching some of their favourite drivers race virtually online. Both Verstappen and Albon were regulars on Twitch live streams and agree that Lando Norris may be the best eSport driver on the grid.
“My rating is the highest,” says Max. “But it depends on the game as well. There are so many games. So it’s difficult to say. I think Lando also, he’s pretty quick.”
Of course, racing in a video game doesn’t even begin to compare to the real deal. One cannot simply hop into a monstrous machine with 1000 HP and fling it around a track at speeds upwards of 300 km/h while absorbing up to six g-forces.
Nevertheless, a common misconception about F1 drivers is that they aren’t as fit as other athletes. Albon attempts to explain the physical demands involved in racing in Formula One.
“The first thing is we’re driving for like an hour and a half – two hours. And our average heart rate is about 165-170 beats per minute. We’re doing that for a good amount of time and of course on top of that, we’ve just got a lot of things going on. It’s more mental/physical than [running] a hundred metres is a hundred percent physical, let’s say.”
Indeed, F1 drivers need to work on their stamina and train their necks to sustain immense strain over the course of 50 to 80 laps. On average, they’re known to lose around two kilos every race.
Verstappen offers a less considered response though: “Yeah, I don’t know people like that or I ignore them or I just find them really stupid. It’s the same as asking like, ‘is football a sport?'”
The talented duo must push themselves to the limit one more time at the Yas Marina circuit as the Abu Dhabi GP brings the curtain down on a roller coaster season. Once more, they must withstand the incredible pressure to perform, something they’ve learned to accept.
“Motorsport itself is one of those sports where there’s only 20 drivers as you know. So it’s all about performing under pressure,” Albon opines.
“But also, apart from that, just keeping your head cool, I guess. There are a lot of times where it doesn’t go your way but it’s just about dealing with it. And of course, being Red Bull, they do things big.”
As he’s found out, there’s only one course of action.
“You just have to get used to that.”
