Alex Albon says Red Bull’s decision not to pit under the Safety Car cost him a possible podium chance at Imola on Sunday.
The Thai driver was running fifth at the restart following the tyre failure for teammate Max Verstappen, but would be overtaken by Daniil Kvyat into Tamburello and then by Sergio Perez in a bold move at the Villeneuve chicane.
On the exit, however, Albon lost the rear on the kerb and spun, narrowly avoiding Carlos Sainz behind him with the resulting pit-stop dropping him down to his finishing position of 15th.
“It was one of those races where we spent the whole race behind other cars,” he commented afterwards. “There wasn’t much to do there.
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“Possibly, in hindsight, we should have stopped when the others did at the end of the race.
“Of course we were the first cold tyre car for them to come across, so it was always going to be difficult to hold them off.
“If we stopped, we could have been looking for a podium, but that’s just the way it is.”
Albon’s race engineer actually apologised for not pitting him after the race, perhaps a sign Red Bull admitted they got it wrong.
But still, the spin was another costly mistake for Alex, who initially thought he had been tagged by Sainz until the pictures showed a different story.
“I got told I did, but maybe that’s wrong. If I wasn’t hit, it was just cold tyres and lack of downforce,” he said. “I thought a McLaren had shown its nose, but maybe I’m wrong.”
The result means Albon had failed to score at the past three races, the after team boss Christian Horner had suggested he had Portugal and Imola to “justify” keeping his seat for 2021.
But while the pundits feel his Red Bull career is doomed, the 24-year-old insists otherwise.
“Of course I’m hanging in there, I’m doing everything I can,” Albon added. “It was, in retrospect, not a bad weekend for me, but we’ll focus ahead on Turkey.”
Commenting on his performance post-race, Horner was diplomatic.
“It’s a difficult one for Alex because he was in that race with Charles [Leclerc] and Daniel [Ricciardo] all afternoon,” he said.
“Then at the restart fighting with [Sergio] Perez who was on new tyres, he just lost it at the second chicane.
“So hugely frustrating for him to come away with zero points and for the team as well.”