Alex Albon feels that Red Bull didn’t give him enough time to develop before they gave him a seat.
Albon joined the grid at the start of the 2019 campaign, driving for AlphaTauri after an impressive 2018 season in Formula 2.
He enjoyed a strong first half of the season, scoring points in five races with a P8 finish in Monaco and a P6 finish in Germany being the highlights.
At Red Bull meanwhile, Pierre Gasly was struggling in his first year there after being promoted from the sister team to replace Daniel Ricciardo.
As a result of their respective performances, Helmut Marko and co took the decision to swap Albon and Gasly around for the second half of the season.
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Given the lack of time he had to prepare, the Thai driver originally did relatively well in his new surroundings. While he couldn’t get near team-mate Max Verstappen, he finished eight of the remaining nine races of the year inside the top six.
Things didn’t go so well in his first full season as a Red Bull driver though, with him picking up just two podiums compared to Verstappen’s 11 and scoring 109 points less than the Dutchman.
As a result, he was replaced by Sergio Perez for the 2021 campaign and, after spending that as the team’s test and reserve driver, left the Red Bull camp to drive for Williams this year.
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Nevertheless, he doesn’t think he did too much wrong during his time with the team, and simply feels he was given the promotion too early in his career.
“I wouldn’t say anything went wrong,” he told Auto Motor und Sport.
“That would be an exaggeration. After half a year, I was put straight into a top team. Earlier than any other driver and without testing before. If you look at youngsters today, they get the chance to develop slowly.
“2019 was a good year. Then in 2020, I struggled with the car.”
Albon did indeed join a top team earlier than most young drivers have in recent times with Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc spending a full season with Toro Rosso and Sauber respectively first and George Russell spending three at Williams.
The Thai driver in contrast had driven just 12 races in Formula 1 before stepping into the Red Bull.