Alex Albon isn’t worrying about his Formula 1 future just yet, as speculation over the 2020 driver market picks up.
The Thai driver has enjoyed a solid first season at Toro Rosso with three top 10s to his name, although results have tailed off with no points scored since Monaco.
And as the summer approaches and teams begin to think about next season, Albon isn’t feeling any additional pressure to perform.
“Not really, I still just focus on myself. I know what you mean but there’s no looking over the shoulder or anything like that,” he said.
“I’m still very much a rookie and I’m still learning a lot so every weekend is just about trying to improve as a driver, improve the feedback and my knowledge of the car.”
Having never driven an F1 car before pre-season testing, Albon started the season very much following teammate Daniil Kvyat in terms of setup and his approach.
However, he explained how, as he gains experience, that is starting to change.
“I think in the beginning it was learning big chunks at a time and now it’s more fine-tuning,” he claimed.
“I now know what I want in the car and what the car needs to be fast, it’s just little things about tyre management and tyre prep, but still the big thing is just understanding the tricks with the car.
“At the beginning, I was kind of in no-mans-land where you are not sure what you want to be doing with the car and where what suits the car, and now it’s more about being a bit more independent with my choices.”
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As for how he would rate his rookie year in F1, Albon was pretty positive.
“I’m happy with it so far,” he stated.
“As I said, the last two races haven’t been too easy for us, it’s been a tough couple of races for Daniil and me, so I’m happy with the season but the focus really is about getting back in the points.”
