Alex Albon says he has no doubts over his potential ahead of his first weekend at Red Bull in Belgium.

The Thai driver got the nod to replace Pierre Gasly for the rest of 2019 following a disappointing first 12 races for the Frenchman and a decent start to his rookie season for Albon.

However, he has set quite low expectations, certainly initially, even admitting the move might have come too early for him.

"The way I see it is that it’s an opportunity. Doubt as in doubting myself, not really no," Albon insisted.

"You have to go into it as confident as you can. I kind of know how I am. I’ve only done six months in an F1 car so there is definitely room for improvement and I know that.

"If I look back from how I was in Melbourne and how I am now, I have improved as a driver and I know that kind of progress is only going to continue.

"Of course, jumping into a car this early, I do feel like in a way you would wish it would happen a bit later, but I’m still very excited and I can’t wait to get started."

Also Read:

• Verstappen: 'Difficult to say' if Albon will be a stronger Red Bull teammate
• Kvyat plays down Red Bull decision to choose Albon as Gasly replacement
• Gasly: I'm partly responsible for failure at Red Bull

The journey to this point has been quite remarkable for Albon, who was initially dropped by Red Bull seven years ago but continued to work his way through upto F2 before getting another chance at Toro Rosso for 2019.

Even that move didn't come easily, however, as the 23-year-old had agreed to join Nissan in Formula E for Season 5 before managing to extract himself from the deal.

"It is quite laughable really when I look back at it, even just now," he admitted. "I don’t think my career has been very fluid let’s say, I‘ve had a lot of ups and downs and just to be in this position is incredible.

"I think there are a lot of drivers who have done an amazing job in F1 who have never been given the opportunity to be in a race-winning and championship-winning team. It’s a big opportunity for me and I know that."

His first day inside the car on Friday was respectable, initially staying within a tenth of Max Verstappen in Practice 1 before struggling more in the afternoon.

Still, Albon was quite satisfied.

"It was a pretty smooth day,” he said. “I feel quite at home with the guys, they’ve been very nice to me and it is very different [to the Toro Rosso].

“I could tell that already on Wednesday in the sim and you could tell it’s going to take some time to get used to, but once you are on the track and have the helmet on you can feel the G-Forces and you can feel the car a bit better, but it’s just baby steps really.”

Upon his welcome to Red Bull, Albon got the news that he'll be starting at the back of the grid at Spa due to Honda's new Spec 4 engine.

But he admits that might just help him, as he can be aggressive in trying to come through the field.

“Yeah you could say that definitely," he said. “I still would have liked to have qualified properly and seen where I would have gone, but obviously the focus now is not on the short run pace, it’s trying to set-up the car for Sunday.

“So there is a bit of a more chilled out atmosphere but of course you still want to do a good job on Sunday.”