Lewis Hamilton blamed for ‘massively’ denting confidence of F1 2023 star performer

Red Bull’s Helmut Marko has pointed a finger of blame at Lewis Hamilton for how Alex Albon’s Red Bull career played out.

Alex Albon may now be an established member of the F1 midfield thanks to his dependability as the lead driver as Williams, but the British-Thai racer’s F1 career foundered badly at the end of 2020 as Red Bull opted to drop him after a year and a half alongside Max Verstappen.

While Albon had started life at Red Bull in strong fashion after being rapidly promoted from Toro Rosso in mid-2019 as Red Bull sought a replacement for the struggling Pierre Gasly, Albon’s form also took a nosedive during his tenure.

Marko reckons this came about partly as a consequence of his confidence taking a beating due to two strong results having gotten away from him as a result of collisions with Lewis Hamilton.

At the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix, running in second place, Albon was tagged by Hamilton as the Mercedes driver overtook Gasly for third, spinning the Red Bull driver out and dooming him to a 14th place finish. Hamilton was given a five-second penalty for the incident.

At the first race of the COVID-affected 2020 season, the Austrian Grand Prix, Albon looked set to challenge for victory as he had just pitted for soft tyres prior to a late Safety Car intervention.

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However, as Albon went around the outside of Hamilton at Turn 4, Hamilton ran wide enough to the point where he tagged Albon’s right rear. Once again, Albon was spun around into the gravel – he retired a few minutes later with an electrical issue. Hamilton was given a five-second penalty again and finished fourth.

“This guy is such a sore loser!” Albon shouted over team radio after their second collision in three races.

The incidents played a big role in sapping the young driver of confidence and self-belief, according to Marko, who was involved in the decision-making process to remove Albon from his race seat and replace him with the veteran Sergio Perez for the following year.

“Alex, I have to say, was really unlucky,” Marko told the Inside Line podcast.

“In Brazil, he was fighting for second position when Hamilton turned him around.

“Fine, it didn’t help Alex. But he lost his podium.

“And the next, which was more severe, was in Austria, when Alex was fighting for the win when, again, it was turned around by Hamilton.

“That hit his confidence massively… massively.

“第二,甚至赢了,放在桌子上。某人e took the glory away. That made it difficult from this moment, his self-confidence was down and we needed someone we knew to fight for the championship, we needed two solid drivers.”

While Albon would sit out 2021 to serve as Red Bull’s reserve driver, his contributions to the team’s simulator and development work that year was a key contribution towards Verstappen’s title victory. Red Bull rewarded him by helping bat for him on the driver market, which eventually helped him land his current Williams seat.