Alex Albon: changing people's perceptions

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1:45Alex Albon is changing people's perceptions in 2025. It was easy to dismiss me for my teammates. I think that was like an easy scapegoat to kind of say, well, he's doing well, but we don't really know how to quantify him. When James spoke to me early on about Carlos joining, I genuinely want to see how I stack up against a driver like Carlos. So I was confident in who I was, but I think I maybe have surprised some of the paddock. Hi, everyone. Tom Clarkson here and welcome to F1 Beyond the Grid. This year, Alex Albon is facing his toughest teammates since Max Verstappen at Red Bull back in 2020.

2:26And so far, he's risen to the challenge impressively. But has he actually changed as a driver, or are we just taking more notice of him? Alex is typically candid in this chat, talking about what it's like having Carlos as a benchmark, how they compare to each other in terms of driving style and feedback, and whether their relationship would remain civil if they were fighting for a title. Alex also tells me about one of the big changes Williams made this season based on Carlos's time at Ferrari and how he finds his sweet spot in the car with something called sacred presence. Alex is his usual witty, charming self and he paints a clear picture of his mindset ahead of 2026 and the dawning of a new era for Formula One.

3:12if it coincides with a new front-running era for Williams, could next year be Alex's moment to shine? Alex, great to see you. Thanks for your time. How are things? Very good, thank you. How are you? I am good, and I've quite enjoyed this mini-break leading up to Spa, I must say. I would agree. I feel like it's been much needed. And honestly, I felt a bit tired after that first block. I feel like this new style that we do at the beginning of the season, where we go Japan a week off, the China a week off, that actually gets you on the back foot very quickly. Well, it's 12 races in 17 weeks. That's what we've just done.

3:58So I think you're not alone. No, and I think the traveling back to the UK, at least for us to do all the simulator work, you kind of, your jet lag and your, what's the official word? Sarcadian rhythm? is that the the technical word it doesn't agree for a long time and it really starts to get disturbed and then by the time we get into europe it's calmed down it's at least for me and it was nice these last two weeks just to be on the same time zone sleeping well in my own bed do you slow down when you have a break like this massively yeah i think i'm totally off the throttle pedal i've treated these two weeks almost like it's the summer break trying to uh stay away from my phone I know, for example, my team, my engineering team, a lot of them have taken a week off.

4:45So we've all kind of stayed away from our phones and chilled out. I was wondering if you might have opened a children's creche, because I saw the other day that James Vowles thinks you would be the worst babysitter of all the drivers on the grid. I thought it was harsh. I think I would be the one that all the kids like, you know, like the fun uncle. That would be me. How much ice cream do you want? Go crazy. But yeah, I see it. I see it. I am quite irresponsible, but I think I would be a competitive dad at the same time. I have absolutely no doubt that you would be the competitive dad. Don't worry, I'll babysit James' kids free of charge.

5:29That's the service I do. I do it all. It'll be in the next contract. Now, Alex, I wanted to talk to you first and foremost about this 2025 season um what a year it's turning out to be for you you finished in the points eight times in these opening 12 races given where williams have been for the last few years and as a result you yes how much are you enjoying this particular ride it's been a lot of fun i've really felt like as a team we've made a big step it's been the biggest step when I think about 22 to 23 and and and so long this jump from 24 to 25 the car's really taken not just a couple tenths now we're talking a good half a second to a second which puts us way further up the grid it puts us actually in the beginning beginning of the season to the top of the midfield and and with some tracks some space to the cars behind which was fun we had a few races where we were fighting the ferraris the mercedes um overtaking them on track which is um again a lot of fun and i hope we can keep going and have a few more of them races you talk about half a second where is that half a second is it corner entry is it been everywhere it's interesting because when we went on the simulator and we were driving the car you know towards the end of last year and into into the beginning of this this year there was lap time let's say it was your normal steps that that's kind of two three tenths step that you get from the year before and then when we hit the track in Silverstone on our shakedown day it was like oof this feels quick this feels good and and there's the reason why that it's more than than kind of the quoted number is because there's a balance in the car now um we've been plagued with kind of the same balance problems year to year high speed to low speed so we've been balancing the extremes of overseer and understeer, high-speed oversteer, low-speed understeer.

7:32This year, it's far more together. And that just means everything starts to flow better. You can drive better. You're not limited on setup as much. So the car can be in a better window, corner to corner. And actually, when you look at the results of Williams this year, our biggest asset has actually been how consistent we've been in terms of being able to score points. You could argue that the times we haven't scored points have been DNF finishes. That's it, really. We have a car and we can go racing at every track, which we haven't been able to do from the moment I've joined the team. And what does that do to confidence levels for you?

8:07I wouldn't say I've got more confident or less confident. I would say my confidence level is the same. I think that when I'm driving, it all feels the same. I'm just fighting for positions further out the grid. but what I would say it does do is the culture and the energy in the team is different. We were often, you know, a points finish was such a big deal to us now. I remember finishing the race in Silverstone and it was almost like, oh, we only got P8. And it's like, well, how quickly a year goes and how quickly we forget kind of our previous history and it becomes a new norm. That's Formula One, I think.

8:49You're always looking for the next step. and it's great though there's this positivity and this hunger within the team that we can always achieve more and I don't think that was there when I when I first joined. What's been the biggest lesson that Williams has learned during its years in the wilderness do you think? What I've seen is that the team have been able to come from let's say slightly old thinking and complacency within doing the same things and expecting things to get better and suddenly the team shifted towards a far more dynamic open-minded approach i think james is a big part of that and the willingness and the confidence within the team that's changed a huge amount as well and all these three things together really has just created this positive working environment so the team can try new things what about you in the cockpit i mean do you start on a friday and think well i tell you what we'll do that with the setup and see where we end up i would say there is an element to that but that's more due to having to experience drivers that's not so much a a change in in team ethic in terms of how we go racing it's just that when we go into fp1s now with carlos next to me we we explore we kind of always explore and then by the time it arrives to saturday we're kind of back into a very similar setup so that helps definitely progress the team quicker we get optimum setups quicker as well i would say in previous times i've most probably been the one leading a lot of the setup changes and ideas and the team were reliant on my feedback whereas now Carlos gives good feedback i believe i give good feedback and so we we share that um very evenly I feel we've seen your full armory this year.

10:40We've seen you drive defensive races in Monaco. Yeah, very defensive. We've seen you do, you know, aggressive races. We've had quiet races. You've sort of shown the world what you can do. Does it feel like that for you? I think I do see what you mean. Yes. I don't think it's, I've changed anything. I just think I've been given a platform to showcase what I can do more than anything. So I think the noise outside of driving is very focused on driver results. And it looks like it's been a great year and it has been a great year for myself. But the car has allowed me to get to that point. So when I think about the results that we've been able to achieve and different tracks scoring different points and good points, P5s, I just think it's such a team-based sport.

11:30There's this almost like a, wow, Alex is having a great season. and I would agree but I would say that it's such a car and team thing you know I feel like I've had great races last year which never got talked about because I was p18 but a high tide raises all boats doesn't it and therefore do you think with that confidence you are a different it feels you're a different driver I look at Tamburello or Imola and the move you tried on Leclerc I don't think just having observed all 116 of your races whatever it is i'm not convinced that you would have tried that in the past i've done i've done i've done even more desperate moves before austria okay i know what you mean i know what you mean i'm hungry this year i feel like i've been able to showcase what i can do i feel like i've always had an elbows out hungry mentality and we're in the midfield we're fighting we're always fighting i feel like i can go to every race knowing that there's a chance to score points knowing there's a good results finish available to me so in terms of that sense motivation is always strong but as a driver i it sounds really boring to say and i feel like maybe it goes against the the general trend of of where the story goes let's say i feel like i'm i'm driving just as well as i have done and it's seen as as an amazing year but uh but i i feel like i've i've my process is very consistent i change i kind of go to every race and i work on myself and i will look at these little details and that hasn't really changed that was going to be my next question have you changed your preparation in any way.

13:13The biggest change, if you say from last year to this year, has been looking at data from Carlos. That's been the single biggest change. So we're always very close and we're always learning from each other and we're kind of just refining each other's driving styles, copying them, trying different setups, copying setups. But no, it's a very boring answer, I know. But no, it's just kind of within my own zone. I love to create a very small bubble and together with Patrick, my sports coach and my manager, Jacques, who's right next to you, and then my psychologist and everyone around. It's kind of how do we maximize and exploit everything I can every weekend?

13:59And that's the drive. And it's very internal in that sense. Cadillac has entered Formula One, deepening the racing pedigree behind every V-Series on the road. Discover a line-up that delivers pure adrenaline in the form of modern luxury. Experience the quickest Cadillac ever, the all-electric Lyric V, the peak performance of the CT5V Blackwing, the nimble agility of the Optic V, and the legendary roar of the Escalade V. all engineered to thrill. Find out more about Cadillac's performance story in Formula 1 and our race-tested V-Series line-up at cadillac.com. Cadillac has entered Formula 1, deepening the racing pedigree behind every V-Series on the road.

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15:27Formula One is racing to be more sustainable. The sport is on track to meet its net zero by 2030 commitment by halving its carbon emissions. I'm Ellen Jones, Head of Environment, Social and Governance at Formula One. From 2018 to 2024, we've cut carbon emissions by 26%. We have done this by using renewable energy to help power F1 factories, offices and events, moving the sport around the world using more efficient aircraft, investing in sustainable aviation fuel, biofuel trucks and sea freight, We've also updated the calendar to reduce travel distances between races. The sport has come a long way, and we are going even further.

16:07Next year, every F1 car will be powered by advanced sustainable fuel, and we will make our logistics even more efficient to drive further emissions reductions.

16:31What about your technical feedback? Have you learned from Carlos anything in that regard? Yes, I would say that technically we're very similar. There's some technical things which Ferrari had that Carlos can bring to Williams and it kind of opens the team's eyes as well as mine. I think when Carlos joined, there was an open notebook from the team to stay open-minded and see why Ferrari Ferrari is a winning team and where they got their performance from. But also as a driver, I also had my notebook out because for me, it was interesting to see why was the Ferrari, how could Carlos drive it like that?

17:11And what did he want from the car? And where is the Williams Limited compared to the Ferrari? And where are we strong compared to the Ferrari? Things like that. Is the engineering team the same? I mean, I heard that there is a, is there now a driver coach at Williams for example yeah you've done your done your research um there is there is there's a that's a new for 25 so so for example Ferrari had a driver coach and I think they had a driver coach each Charles and Carlos last year so we adopted that I would say I'm still in my kind of discovery phase because I haven't had one in a long time how does the driver coach vary from the performance engineer some teams do it differently some teams have their performance engineer is also kind of a driver coach they kind of do both us it's a little bit more split up so what the driver coach will do is he's purely on lines driving styles compromises so for example suzuka sector one where you know placing the car and things like that he can help in terms of wind changes and if you get a snap he can be very quick on responding to these kind of things whereas the performance engineer is looking kind of more about optimizing the balance of the car so that's more around like okay you have this snap of oversteer here try this on the car so you could imagine that actually having two parts of information if you have a corner let's make it really simple maggots beckett's in in at silverstone you might be consistently slow in one corner um the final right hander before you go on to the back straight and then the driver coach will tell you okay, I think you need to compromise turn 12 a little bit more turn in a little bit later to turn 12 open up turn 13 a little bit more and the reason why you're getting the snap mid-corner is because you're asking too much of the car in turn 13 you need to bring it back a bit and then the performance engineer will actually say try these tools on the car this is going to lock up the differential a little bit more, it's going to stop the snap and then you can have both You can attack it in both ways and you can kind of choose, do both, do one kind of thing and go about it in different ways.

19:24Have you found it useful? I have. I've seen the benefits from it for sure. It's almost like as a driver you have so much information coming at you. You have to be really selective with what you pick and choose because sometimes it can just be information overload. It's a lot about communication. it's useful to a point but then at the end of the day you still got to just drive the thing and feel the car and know what you need to do to deliver the lap time so you you cherry pick what comes through on the topic of car loss you've gone from being the de facto number one driver you've talked about how the team looked to you in the past for a lead from an engineering point of view you can now share the load do you see the benefits of that or or do you like being an equal number one would Would you rather be the de facto?

20:13No, no, I enjoy it. I think, firstly, it's healthy competition. As a general point of view, you know, we're pushing each other every session that we go out on. In terms of developing the car and the team, what's good about us two, I believe, is that we're very aligned in terms of feedback. So we like the same kind of things in the car. and then as a result when we start developing next year's car for example a lot of the discussions and meetings that we we we speak about and we speak to to the various heads of in different departments we're kind of looking for the same things so i said it already about weekends how we split out different objectives starting the weekend we're already doing things even in this year's car that hopefully will will will help next year's car as well and we're just trying different concepts so that helps as well and what you don't as well see is all the work that we're doing in the simulator so there's a huge amount of work that we do there where we we kind of it's almost like one day i'll do my work carlos will kind of take what i've done and then go the next day and and do his work and and we kind of just it's like um you can build it's jenga that's just don't take anything away exactly exactly infinite jenga when you look at his data is there anything that surprises you about him not to say in a bad way but no no i think we're very we're very similar we have our styles that's for sure nothing he does i can't replicate and i'm sure he would say the same nothing i do he can't replicate and it's just about kind of optimizing each other i think we have general weaknesses and strengths do they complement each other like is one of you really good through fast corners the other better through slow corners so between you yes you can learn yeah exactly that so i think i think this happens with most most teammates qualifying just comes to whoever executes it the best what do you think surprises him about you um i don't know you'd have to get a carlos signs beyond the grid episode um has he have you talked about it No, not so much.

22:20I think we know each other's styles quite well. I think the main differences that we've had are that I have a driving style that I kind of just drive around some of the car limitations. I think that's come from a lot of years of driving the Williams car and accepting it. So, okay, well, you know, this is what I got and we're going into qualifying now, so we just got to get on with it. And I think Carlos is more along the, I want to drive like this and you guys have got to give me this. But in the same context, we're still talking about the same things. I would say that's the nuance between us, but not so much in terms of it.

23:00Isn't that interesting though, how you've just had to settle before with what you've got whereas I suppose those years at Ferrari have taught him that you can still make it better exactly I liken it very similar to my time at Red Bull so when I came from Red Bull to Williams I had a Christmas list that was extremely long and it was like guys we need to do this and this and this and this to get better this is why the Red quick here and here and here and here and Carlos is in that phase of this is where we need to improve and I guess in many ways I know but I don't know I know where I think the car is weak and you could imagine if Carlos arrives to Bahrain and he'll say we're weak in turn eight because I remember last year at Ferrari I could do this and then Williams we cannot do this so it's almost like a point blank that's the recipe but we can't fix it a lot of these issues are are baked into the car so we that's where the development cycle happens and what's good is that nothing he's saying now is nothing i've not been saying the last three years we kind of have the same comments about it alex it's interesting isn't it everyone talks about oh carlos is coming with this ferrari experience a lot of people forgetting that you have actually been at red bull racing when you know when they were really really good yeah and that experience must stand you in good stead even now a few years later i think it's it's really helped me yes i i don't think at the time i was experienced enough to soak it all in i learned a lot from it but i i kind of came into that so inexperience at the time i was kind of more just gathering my my my feet and just going for it.

24:46I had that year away where I could reflect and think about, okay, now I have a year out. How can I get better as a racing driver? And where was particularly Max, where was he strong and where can I learn from? I think the years at Red Bull helped a lot. I think the year away from the sport helped a lot on top of that. And then when I got back into Williams, I was in a good place. How did the year away help you? I mean, you were doing the DTM, you were doing a do the racing, quite a lot of sim for Red Bull as well. The biggest thing for me was I developed a much better mechanical engineering idea of what makes sense.

25:23For example, when you're at a race weekend and you're a rookie and you're kind of trying to learn how to go quickly, you're not really thinking about setup. You're more just looking at the data and going, I need to break later here. I need to carry this kind of speed or these kind of things. I don't want to say basic things, but they're important things as you're a rookie and you're learning, how do I use the tyres correctly? How do I save the tyres correctly in the race? How do I use the tyres correctly in qualifying? These kind of things. And then once you gain that brain space and all that kind of stuff is natural and you're comfortable with the car and whatnot, you can then start to understand, okay, well, what's my driving style?

26:04How can I maximise the car around my driving style? What do I need as a driver personally to get the best out of the car? What is a quick car? What kind of balance do I need at these kind of tracks? What's the trade-offs between a stiff car and a soft car? How can I experiment with tyre warm-up procedures, outlaps, things like this? So then your envelope to maximise the performance of the car just grows and grows and grows. And getting off the treadmill of races helped you do that? I think you see it as a rookie kind of on a hamster wheel a little bit. you're you're you're kind of just so in it everything's a blur you take a year out everything slows down again and then when you come back into it you're kind of a lot more in control and you know your you know your weaknesses you know what areas you don't like you know how you don't like the car okay well you know i can work around these these parameters and and kind of go and kind of just chip away at it and refine it while we're talking red bull as an aside interesting that here at Williams you've been through a change of team principle and how a team reacts to that yes I mean what what was it like when you think of pre-James and post-James yeah that's they're going through that now with Laurel Mechias yeah it's strange to me that I was there kind of pre-James but at least on on our side there's such a huge support structure around Formula One teams now there's such a massive group of people involved I really like Jost and and and his group and when they left James seemed to come through pretty seamlessly to be honest with you kind of just got straight into business and he knew what areas the team needed to work on and just got through very quickly there was not I don't know the teams are pretty well oiled now where there wasn't that much of a gap and there's a lot of momentum a team like Red Bull's gonna have so much momentum it's gonna be like a juggernaut heading in one one direction it takes a lot to turn it around yes Yes, yes, it is interesting.

27:57It is interesting. I'm interested to know where these next few years go. I think the driver market as well, as a consequence, is going to be very interesting. Cadillac has entered Formula One, deepening the racing pedigree behind every V-Series on the road. Discover a line-up that delivers pure adrenaline in the form of modern luxury. Experience the quickest Cadillac ever, the all-electric Lyric V, the peak performance of the CT5V Blackwing, the nimble agility of the Optic V, and the legendary roar of the Escalade V. All engineered to thrill. Find out more about Cadillac's performance story in Formula 1 and our race-tested V-Series line-up at cadillac.com.

28:56your qualifying head-to-head against Carlos is 7-5 in your favor it's 2-0 in the sprints as well you're 33 points ahead of him in the driver's championship do you think your record against him has changed people's perception of you and I'm talking about the paddock's perception yes I do I do think it's changed um I think that it was easy to dismiss me for my teammates I think that was like an easy escape goat to to kind of say well he's he's doing well but but we don't really know how to quantify him as a driver and I think when James spoke to me early on about Carlos joining I was actually I was in I was in two positive mindsets The first one was he's going to be a huge asset to the team with all his experience and him being a quick driver.

29:49The second was I feel like he's a credible reference that I can go into. And I also genuinely want to see how I stack up against a driver like Carlos. So maybe in many senses, I was confident in who I was, but I think I may be surprised, have surprised some of the paddock. I don't think necessarily the people that know were surprised. This sounds a bit arrogant saying this, but internally in Williams or the ones that I've driven for in the past. But yeah, I'm glad with how I've been performing this year. Do you think there's more interest in you now from other teams? Speak to Jack, see to my manager.

30:37Not to me personally. The phone has been red hot. how many more years have you got on the Williams contract I can't say that either um I love the story of Williams I think we're definitely in the right position and I'm not you know I'm not looking around I'm I'm convinced in the project I love being here um and I think James and the board are doing a fantastic job so um I I do mean that and I think looking at the previous results there's no no reason why why I need to look around I'm very happy with with where I am you've got a desire to see this project through you've been there at the bottom of the trough haven't you you now need to it's many ways a part of why i'm so intrigued to stay and and and and see where this project comes to because i feel like i've been a part of i'm not day one that's definitely not day one but i feel like i'm day two day three so uh it's been great to see it and feel it and and hope to think that i've been a a part of it and like the senior management here do you think it's all about 2026 would you sacrifice points in the second half of this season if if you get payback next year yes i look at it in a different scale i look at it like is there anything that we can do to this year's car whether it's understanding the characteristics better or improving the characteristics that's going to help next year's car so i don't mind this year i don't think this year can ever be sacrificed completely because there's still learnings to do on this year's car that can can feed next year's car because you were calling for upgrades after Silverstone.

32:05Yes and we still have some characteristics we want to understand and improve and you can't just do that from nothing you can't just develop a car in 2026 that doesn't have any flaws in it and so we know there's genetic issues with the car that we have there's philosophies that we can't shake off and so we can experiment with this year's car because because there are things, you know, we have the same people building the same cars year in, year out. So if we don't get on top of them, they're still going to be there next year, even in the world of a new car. It's amazing how cars keep their DNA, even though the regulations change.

32:48How involved have you been in the 26 car? Have you driven it on the simulator yet? Yes, I've been very involved. Carlos and I have both been very involved because we want to make sure we hammer home some of the key things we want in the car. The simulator program was started about a month ago. What are your first impressions? Charles Leclerc in Austria arrived in the press conference and he'd just been on the sim and he wasn't overly complimentary saying, you know, but it is early days. Are the cars going to feel very different to drive? Firstly, it's interesting. I wonder what car he drove. I wonder if he drove the car that's currently in the wind tunnel or is he driving the car that is hitting race one?

33:32Because there's a big difference. The rate of speed at which teams are adding down forces is very quick. Sorry to interrupt. Are you already at race one iteration here? You can estimate where race one is going to be. And so you kind of get a bit of an idea. You can do it both ways. Some teams will track it. So you're basically driving the car that's being made currently and then you're just following the progress and making sure that... And is the rate of development, is it linear at the minute? It's never linear. It's never linear. You will get these big spikes as we unlock certain traits that we're happy with, characteristics that we're happy with.

34:06Do you think 26 could be your year? I don't think it will be our golden year. I think it will be a better year. I'm hoping it's a better year than this year. This year's already been a great year, but I would say our true years are still in front of us. the team is still fairly young and we're still employing and you look at you're here at the factory now you can see there's a lot of work going on behind the scenes the whole building's changed i'm sure a lot since you've last been here that's williams we're still growing i think we we haven't reached our full potential yet can we imagine for a moment that you and carlos science are doing what mclaren's doing right now it's an intra-team battle between the two of you how old are we I'm thinking 26 but you're obviously no no as in 2026 okay okay I know you're 29 okay one year mid 40s three years down the road whatever it is yes how do you think it would play out do you think you two would keep a lid on it or do you reckon the competitive juices would boil over I think we're competitive yeah I think Lando and Oscar are doing a very good the team are doing a very good job at managing that situation I don't believe there'll be fireworks between Oscar and Lando between Carlos and I but there's fire for sure the fire's already lit the fire's lit but there's no fireworks I mean like when you two play paddle, tennis, golf yes all very civil or does it really rank I think in them senses I'm not actually that competitive really?

35:38yeah I am competitive for sure but I've learned to not be because if I'm too competitive I don't enjoy it Like if I'm in paddle or especially golf, if I get frustrated playing golf. Golf's an outlier, right? The harder you try with golf, the worse it gets. I think that applies to anything though. Does that apply to driving? It applies to driving as well, yeah. At least it does to me. The more you want it, the more you're tense, the more it doesn't work. You've got to kind of relax into it. So if you're playing tennis against Carlos Sainz. Yes. And he beats you. I think he would, to be honest with you.

36:14Tennis, he's quite good at all that. He's got good hand eyes, isn't he? Yeah, I think he grew up on a, I don't know. I think there was a tennis court nearby. Yeah. I'm actually genuinely intrigued as to how. Let's do golf because we are golfers. Let's do golf then. Yeah. But I think you've already told me in the past he's a better golfer than you. Last time we played, I would like to say I beat him. Or did you or didn't you? I did. He was using. What handicap were you on? He was using like three balls a shot. That's not allowed. He was telling me he was having to practice for a friend's tournament later in the, like in a couple of days.

36:46And I said to him, well, we can't compete then. Which ball did he actually count? Which ball counted his first shot? Whatever was the best one. Well, hang on. Carlos Sainz, where are you? We need you in here. We need to settle this right now. We are competitive. I am very competitive. I think in the race car, I manage it, like I said, and I found my sweet spot. But I mean, I'm here to win. Have you got to a point where you can dial in and reproduce the mindset that you need to be quick in terms of every sports person suffers from form, right? Some days are better than others. Have you worked out over your hundred odd races how to get in the right zone?

37:32I mean, can I just, no, no, no, Alonzo tells me that he knows from the moment he opens his curtains in the morning, whether he's going to have a good day or a bad day. He said that to me. Are you, are you like that? I wish I was. Is it just the way he sleeps? Why does he, how does he know? It's obviously a deep inner feeling, isn't it? That's very true. But then if you feel bad in the morning, is that, have you already said no to the weekend? Have you already said no to the race? I would say that that's where I've put most of my effort. Year to year to year. it's been about what's my sweet spot and how they'll get as close to that sweet spot as possible um i think that no person can go into every weekend and be saying that's it i'm in my zone i'm in my in my place you know you sometimes you might get to a place where you're very close to that and that's when you feel like you're performing well there's many weekends where you're not you're not there and you could be over it under it in terms of a it's it's almost your um um it sounds it's a weird word but it's almost like your arousal level your intensity towards your race and and how you want to your focus and and um your adrenaline in a sporting context arousal level is is a it's a commonly used term yes exactly and and you're just not being too high not being too low and you're you're bordering that tight rope but you're not stressed about being above it or below it you're just trying to make sure you're you're in that band being close to 100 % is good enough being 95 % is good enough um and having tactics and strategy around keeping into that zone as much as consistently as possible that's that's the the kind of the art to it let's say and do you have the same routine over the weekend to try and reproduce that yeah so get up at the same time get eat the same thing I would say not totally as that way but my mental approach to it so more around like the timing that i give myself before i get in the car my warm-up and i like to visualize the track before i drive the car all these kind of things i keep it like a routine almost like a checkbox and kind of you know tap into myself and and check in and and feel how i am and then go about executing but but yes the visualization is interesting because andrea stella the team principal of McLaren says, these cars are too quick for the driver to think in.