Red Bull’s attempt to take advantage of a slow Ferrari pit stop spoiled Alexander Albon’s race.
Ferrari brought both their drivers into the pits on lap 12. However Sebastian Vettel made a slow stop, and Red Bull tried to take advantage of it by bringing Albon in on the next lap.“We tried to get Seb on the ‘overcut’ and we didn’t,” said Albon. Vettel’s slow pit stop dropped him into a queue of other cars. “I think he got past the cars quicker than we expected,” Albon added. “So we pretty much compromised the rest of the race trying to get Seb.”
Albon started the race on medium compound tyres and said they were still in good condition when he made his early stop. “The tyres were very good before I did the stop so it almost like a waste of tyres.”
Vettel still had to make a second pit stop, which dropped him behind Albon again, but the Ferrari passed the Red Bull on the penultimate lap.
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“Seb pitted in front, I think he was struggling on that middle stint and then came back at me at the end. So it was a bit frustrating, to be honest, I think we had better pace than that.”
“I think it’s just these kind of corners, these 90-degree corners. Same as Sochi, I’ve struggled a bit with these kind of corners just getting a feeling with a car.
“We’ve got some testing to do on Wednesday for me, so we’ll work on that and see if we can get a better idea going into next year.”
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner praised Albon’s pace and admitted the team’s strategy had backfired. “Alex was in the thick of it and his pace with Sebastian was right there today,” he said.
“We tried to take advantage of Ferrari’s pit stop mishap by covering them off and it was very close but we just missed out.”
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Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
2nd December 2019, 12:25
So he’s struggling with corners… ok…
bosyber (@bosyber)
2nd December 2019, 15:37
Well, with one type of corner, is aware of it, and intends to get if fixed before the start of even winter testing; not a bad mentality I’d say, especially for someone who wasn’t even in the running for F1 a year ago @ivan-vinitskyy
Good of Horner to make clear it’s not Albon’s doing alone that put him so far behind his teammate, because so far he has seemed to keep plugging away at decreasing his own lack in pace compared to Verstappen. Seeing as how Leclerc still has something to learn from Vettel in regards to keeping his tyres good in longer stints while he’s got Vettel’s measure in most other respects, that’s not reflecting badly on Albon in my opinion.
erikje
2nd December 2019, 16:09
its normal to get used to a car and every car will show some specific management needs in corners and other driveability aspects.
Albon is doing great and some additional experience will show his real potential.