How Alexander Albon plans to close Max Verstappen gap in 2020

Alexander Albon

How Albon plans to close Verstappen gap in 2020

It's all about getting comfortable.

Matthew Scott

Wednesday 27 November 2019 15:30

Alexander Albon is confident that he can close the gap to Max Verstappen in 2020 with Red Bull, with a particular focus on the test events after the Abu Dhabi GP and in next year's pre-season period.

Albon's rookie year in Formula 1 has been a roller-coaster affair, starting with Toro Rosso, but ending in the senior Red Bull team as a result of Pierre Gasly's demotion.

The Thai driver has struggled to match Verstappen's pace in qualifying, but is confident that the deficit will begin to shrink as he becomes more comfortable in the car and within the team.

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"I'm still finding areas in the car where which I know I need to work on and just feel more comfortable with," he said.

"But I know that's [down to] seat time and that's playing around with different things, just finding that happy middle place where I'm confident in the car and I'm feeling like I can really extract that performance out of it.

"I know it'll take time, but that's also why I'm looking forward to the testing post-season in Abu Dhabi and even when we have our pre-season testing.

"Of course it's not that easy to do a lot of changes during a race weekend just because you have very limited time and not much time to experiment with the car.

"I think it's just general driving really. Once I can start to really push the car I will feel comfortable. That's when the lap time will pick up."

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