George Russell has launched a scathing attack on Red Bull for its treatment of Alex Albon after he missed Q3 in Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying.
The Thai driver has been off the pace of teammate Max Verstappen since the Formula 1 season began two weeks ago, but Saturday was perhaps the lowest point as Albon could only manage 13th on the grid for Sunday’s race.
On the radio afterwards, Alex vented his frustration on Red Bull putting him in traffic for his final run and the Williams driver, who will start one place ahead on the grid in 12th, jumped immediately to Albon’s defence.
“I’ve known Alex for the last 15 years, being in the same paddock as him, and he’s one of the best drivers we’ve all raced: Max, Charles, all of us will say it,” Russell told Sky Sports.
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“He’s always been at the front in everything he’s done and I don’t know what the hell is going on.
“I feel really bad for him as he’s being made to look like an idiot and he’s absolutely not.
“He’s won in everything he’s done so I don’t know what’s going on, but they need to sort it out for him.”
Albon himself also admitted there was more to his bad result than just the poor track position.
“It’s a little bit of everything,” he said on what went wrong.
“Of course, I wasn’t driving a great lap. We had another lap to do something about it. But okay, there’s just more than one thing going on.
“We just need to discuss it with the team now and be better prepared for next time.”