Perez praises Albon’s ‘openness’ since Red Bull switch

Jamie Woodhouse
Alex Albon Sergio Perez

Sergio Perez praises how "open" Alex Albon has been since he joined Red Bull.

Sergio Perez praised Alex Albon for being so “open” with him since he joined Red Bull as the Thai driver’s replacement.

Albon was brought back into the Red Bull fold in 2019, assigned to their then junior team Toro Rosso.

And after a strong opening half to his debut season, Red Bull made the call to promote Albon to the senior team during the 2019 summer break, sending Gasly back to Toro Rosso.

From there though Albon was unable to find consistent form, leading to Red Bull recruiting Perez for the 2021 season, while Albon became reserve and test driver.

Albon does remain very much a part of Red Bull’s plans working hard behind the scenes, in particular on their 2022 car, but he also has a major part to play this season as Red Bull go for the Drivers’ and Constructors’ titles.

Perez’s deal only covers the 2021 campaign, and so Albon could be forgiven for a bit of wariness about sharing too much information with Perez, but the Mexican said that this has not been the case at all.

“Alex is putting so much work into the simulator with the engineers,” Perez explained during a Red Bull video.

“I remember, when I came here, you wouldn’t expect him to be so open with me. But he was explaining all of the issues that he had, how the car works and that was really nice, since day one, to have from him.

“So I really appreciate that and I appreciate the work that he is putting in at the team with the simulator. This is team work and ultimately we are there thanks to every single individual in this team.”

Sergio Perez Red Bull

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Perez did have similar struggles to both Gasly and Albon in the opening rounds of his Red Bull career, but his victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was very much the breakthrough which Perez needed.

“I feel very, very proud, it’s a victory that really shows the amount of work that we’ve put in since the first [day] of January,” said Perez as he reflected on that P1 in Baku.

“It shows that hard work always pays off, so I’m very proud. And it’s a great boost for the whole team, to know that we’ve got two cars that can fight [for wins]. We really want to win this Championship.”

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