Alex Albon has given an insider's account of how Max Verstappen races based upon his time as the Dutchman's Red Bull team-mate.
The British-Thai racer was even less experienced than Verstappen when he was given the chance to drive for the top team. He had only been racing in Formula 1 for half-a-season when he got the call-up from Christian Horner midway through the 2019 campaign.
He was to swap places with Pierre Gasly, who had wilted under the pressure and returned to sister team Toro Rosso. But even though he was given longer to prove himself, Albon was still unable to come close to matching Verstappen's output.
"I would say he is the most gifted driver I have ever driven alongside," the 26-year-old, who now races for Williams, told the MotorMouth podcast. "It's difficult to compare your teammates, but he drives like he talks – there's no room for politics. He is very straightforward and very relaxed. People don't really know that side of him, but he's so relaxed that I almost think, 'I wish I was that relaxed'.
"It's also the way he handles the car – he is very precise. What he wants in a car is very different from what most drivers want. He wants a car that is so sharp in the corner, it's unbelievable. I can tell you that that car is extremely sharp.
"I've always been known as a driver who likes a lot of front gripping, to control the car precisely. And then this guy comes in. He makes it look like I'm driving a bus."
After a year out of the sport in 2021, Albon was handed a lifeline by Williams who gave him a season to prove himself. His performances in spite of the car's lack of competitiveness have been rewarded with a new multi-year deal, confirmed last week.
And although his new employer is at the back of the grid, Albon feels there is plenty of scope for that to change – and rather quickly. ""The way I see it now is that [the rest of the season is] a really good opportunity for teams to bounce back [and] make up ground quickly," he told the GoF1 Show.
"The way these cars are, it's so open, the concepts are so new, you can see a team like us – we've changed completely the philosophy of the car within six months. We know as a team where we are struggling, what type of corners we lose out in compared to other people.
"We know the reason why, it's not something we are scratching our heads about. So that gives us a clear direction to go towards if we can get that. Why not? Why can't we score points more regularly towards the end of the season?"