Alex Albon confident he could now handle Red Bull’s “knife edge” F1 car

Alex Albon believes his added experience would now allow him to handle Red Bull’s notoriously “knife edge” F1 car.

Albon had 26 races at Red Bull before he was dropped at the end of the 2020 F1 season.

Like his predecessor Pierre Gasly, the Thai driver struggled to match teammate Max Verstappen.

Since leaving Red Bull, Albon has rebuilt his career with Williams, establishing himself as one of F1’s best midfield drivers.

Since Albon’s departure, Sergio Perez, Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda have struggled considerably relative to Verstappen.

While Perez was able to win races and help Red Bull win the constructors’ title twice, he did benefit from having the fastest car in F1.

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix, Albon proposed a theory to explain why Red Bull’s junior drivers tend to struggle in the main team.

“I think the [Red Bull] cars are on a knife edge,” he said as quoted by Motorsport.com. “I think Max can drive it. Obviously I can speak from experience – I struggled a bit.

“It’s also difficult because – maybe it’s my own interpretation of it – but the RB is quite a forgiving car. It’s quite well balanced, it’s very stable, it gives you a lot of confidence.

“And I think it’s naturally become that kind of car because they always have rookies in that car. So the foundations of the team is built on young drivers.

“And then the Red Bull is almost [the other] extreme. You’re going from one of the cars that’s most forgiving to the trickiest. And so you’re having to adapt quite a lot to two very different cars.”

Could Albon return to Red Bull?

Albon has remained committed to the Williams project.

There were rumours that Red Bull considered a return for Albon as they looked for a Perez replacement.

Albon has led Williams since 2022 and has seen off Carlos Sainz so far this year.

Albon admitted that if he got the chance to drive for Red Bull again, he’d be able to get around the ‘unnatural’ feeling the car has.

“I think with the experience I have now, I’d be able to get around it,” Albon added. “But it’s not something that feels that natural to most drivers.”