29/08/2019
NEWS STORY
While Alexander Albon's summer break got off to the best possible start after being told that he was to replace Pierre Gasly at Red Bull, the Frenchman admits to being left in a state of shock on hearing the news that he was being dropped and would return to Toro Rosso.
"It was at 8.42 in the morning," he said of the phone call on Monday 12 August, the first day of the summer break. "And, yeah, of course it was kind of a shock that it happened, as it was not what I had been told before Budapest.
"I think everything was pretty clear and discussed over the last few weeks," he added. "The team said I was going to drive until the end of the year, and that's what I believed.
"Anyway, it's not going to change the decision right now," he admitted. "Whether I understand it or not it's not going to change anything, so I've not spent too much time thinking about it.
"The only thing I need to focus is on is performing in these nine races with Toro Rosso at my best," he added.
"There are things I could have done better over that first half of the season," he said, "I'm partly responsible. I think all of us were responsible for the lack of performance and points we ended up having.
Asked what particular factors brought about the decision, he said: "I think there are many, but that should stay internally, that shouldn't be discussed right now.
"There were many things that were going in the right way even though we still had a few issues," he added. "Things could have gone better, but now I think it's no point discussing about it and I don't really want to talk about it because it's over.
"I've had some good lessons that's going to be useful for the rest of the season, but I need to focus on what I can change and what's going to make me faster in the coming months.
"In the last seven or eight years I've never been more than one year in the same team. You always need to adapt, there will be new things, the factory at the beginning of the week was quite hectic… to get up to speed as fast as possible... but there is no point talking or explaining stuff that happened; it happened. Things are being discussed with Red Bull and the only thing I want to focus on is performing on track."
Check out our Thursday gallery from Spa, here.