Alex Albon was feeling much more comfortable with the Red Bull RB16 after a better Friday at the Belgian Grand Prix.
The UK-born Thai driver finished less than four-tenths behind teammate Max Verstappen, much closer than in recent races, and ahead of Valtteri Bottas in fourth place at the end of Practice 2 at Spa-Francorchamps.
Throughout the year so far, Albon’s main issue has been overcoming the unpredictable nature of Red Bull’s 2020 car and he spoke of that struggle on Thursday.
“There’s not one area in particular but of course, just trying to drive around or drive with the car rather than trying to fight it – that’s the main feeling,” he said of what he was trying to improve.
“It’s getting there. Obviously I want it to happen quicker and immediately but things like that don’t happen overnight so it does take a bit of time and work. I am sure it will come eventually.”
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And after trialling the latest upgrades brought by the Anglo-Austrian team to Spa, Albon finally feels he’s on a good path.
“Yes, I think we brought some things this weekend just to dial out some of the generic problems that Max and I had, I think it went well actually, it was nice to drive today,” he told Will Buxton.
“The times are surprisingly close because the car feels pretty good so we’ll fine-tune it, but it’ll be tight tomorrow.
“I wouldn’t say is one thing specifically [has improved], it’s just giving the driver a little more confidence and feeling more forgiving really, so it was positive.”
In addition, the Belgian track is the first Albon has been at in consecutive years with Red Bull, and that is also contributing to his improvement.
“I think it’s actually helped a lot having that experience in the car from my first race with the team here last year as coming into this weekend I knew what we were going to do, what worked at this track and what didn’t – having that experience is really beneficial,” he said.
“And coming from last year to this year, the car feels a lot better, it’s just that everyone else has done a good job as well.”
One lingering threat hanging over teams for the rest of the weekend is rain, which could strike at any time across Saturday and Sunday…
“On the face of it, we’ll be wanting it to stay dry, we’ll wait and see obviously,” Albon concluded.
