Albon: F1 debut an 'all-time experience'

New Toro Rosso driver Alexander Albon says his Formula 1 test debut on Tuesday was one of the best experiences he's had but admits there are still many things he must adapt to before his race debut next month in the Australian Grand Prix.

Albon was only confirmed by Toro Rosso in late November after the British-born Thai driver negotiated a release from his Nissan Formula E contract to join the Red Bull junior team.

Now with his F1 race debut less than a month away, the 22-year-old explains how his first day in the car was a little different to how he imagined it would be.

"It's up there with all-time experiences, that's for sure," said Albon. "I think in the morning, it was a little bit tough, but then as soon as you start to push and feel the grip you kind of think you're on the limit and there's a whole new limit to be had.

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"You know in your mind what you can do to it, to the car, but doing it was a different story. It took a while to build up, and still today there is some margin there.

First official session in an F1 car and @alex_albon puts it in 4th with 132 laps on the board. Of course he’s going to be popular! pic.twitter.com/qNgi7pA0M5 — Toro Rosso (@ToroRosso) February 19, 2019

"Of course, I knew about the high speed. Everyone talks about it. It doesn't really hit you until you drive it. I always had this perception of what it was going to be like driving the car, but your mind can't really believe how quick these things are."

Asked what the main challenges were in adapting to the car, Albon pinpointed the high cornering speeds were a surprise initially, adding that it would take time for him to find the limit.

"There is so much grip, from the braking, the feeling in general, you feel quite comfortable straight away," said Albon. "It's more just trying to push them extra tenths out where you've got to be really connected and fight the car a little bit more. That will take a bit more time."

Albon's team principal, Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost, said on Monday that the biggest challenge for young drivers is not in the driving, but often in providing technical feedback to many different engineers simultaneously, a theory that Albon appeared to back up.

"The feedback that I have to give, I'm speaking to so many more people on the team and there are so many people you need to kind of get feedback from, so every little problem that you have you have to report it," said Albon.

Alexander Albon: "I was thinking: don't spin it! And that's exactly what I did"#F1Testing #F1 pic.twitter.com/CAeL5xwgf2 — Formula 1 (@F1) February 19, 2019

"Of course, it's about speaking to the right person and trying to maximise your performance. That's quite new to me, obviously, in F2, there's only a couple of things that you can speak about and afterwards it's not your control.

"I think Toro Rosso they're used to having new drivers, so it's not like I'm coming to a team where they expect me to give all this kind of feedback. It's really good like that. They know that I'm new to it and they of course kind of teach me the ways how to give the feedback, things like that. It's been really beneficial to have the winter with Toro Rosso."

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