Alex Albon Exclusive Preview - "THIS is F1"

0:28Watch it early on the High Performance app. high performance. So the first time we sat down and spoke, it was actually just 48 hours after that exhaustingly hot race in Qatar. And Alex came in the room and told us in great detail, actually, just how difficult that race was. But then when we finished the conversation, he and his team got in touch a couple of days later and said that there was more to discuss, that there was areas that we hadn't gone to. And Alex is really passionate about them. So there's actually two halves to this conversation. And I think you're going to love them both. They're both very different, but they both reveal so much about a man who is having one of the standout seasons in F1, despite the fact that he's in a car that at times struggles for pace.

1:08So we're going to play you a clip of what we discuss with Alex in a moment. But before that, something that's quite exciting is that in the last few days, we've launched the High Performance app. And actually, you can hear the full episode with Alex on the app right now. So you don't have to wait until we release it. If you want to do that, just download the app for free from the App Store, and it's all there, along with loads of other exclusive content. But right now, here's a little exclusive teaser of what Alex told us about life in F1. Formula 1 is so cutthroat, it's your only moment. You can't mess up.

1:44There's drivers who take a bit too long in the championship to get going. It was just, can I get up to speed quick enough? I did have that self-belief that I would be quick enough, but did I have the time to get there? There was this huge build-up. I remember arriving to the first test. It was, as I said, Barcelona. Nervous, of course, but excited to drive this Formula One car. I come out the pit lane. I do three corners and I spin and I put it into the gravel trap. And I remember I was like, oh, God, okay. I've spun before, no big deal. But then you come in to the garage. There's like a medical car to take you in.

2:24And there's like 20 cameras just waiting for you. And I was like, wow, this is F1. It sounds that you're aware of the demands that are being placed on you in this seat. The consequences of spinning are evident with all those photographers waiting for you when you come back in. You're describing the moment you put the helmet on. You're focused on your own abilities. Yes. How do you quieten that voice that is nagging away with that inner doubt? It's strange, but I think racing cars are quite unique where we are our own person. We put our helmets on, and as soon as that helmet goes on, our earplugs go in, we're alone.

3:08It's quite an intimate sport. There's no feeling like anyone's watching you. At least I don't feel like anyone's watching me. I don't feel like my engineers, even though they're talking to me, they're not there with me. And maybe it is this feeling of being slightly introverted, but it's actually where I feel the most calm, the most focused. When you go into the car, that's my space. That's where I belong. So everything goes away at that point. It went away and things went well and you represented yourself brilliantly. And then you suddenly have another change come to your career. You're no longer a Toro Rosso driver.

3:43your one phone call from being a Red Bull driver? It's a very odd situation where I was getting started to get very comfortable. At Toro Rosso, started off well, had a good first test. And then the first few races started to have some good races. I'll qualify my teammate a few times. The pressure, every race was becoming less and less. I knew after the first race, I knew I belonged. I knew I've got what it takes and I do genuinely believe in myself. And then summer break comes around and then I get the same guy, Helmut Marko, calls me back, back to his office, this time in Austria. That's a bit more serious.

4:19You had no idea why? No idea why. I thought it was to go through my residency because he was helping me move to Monaco and it was the same conversation. So he spent the whole time talking to me about this one thing. And then just as the meeting ends, he goes, oh, by the way, you're in the Red Bull seat. honestly Alex Albon is one of the nicest guys in Formula One I've known him for a number of years I've spoken to him a lot never have I had this kind of conversation so just to remind you we sat down and spoke with Alex we then sat down again a couple of weeks later just after he'd come back from Brazil and we spoke again if you want to hear the whole conversation with Alex right now you can do that just download the high performance app for free from the app store or you can wait until it's released in just a few days time.

5:06Listen, thank you so much for listening and please do keep checking back on the High Performance feed. There are so many incredible episodes coming up. I can't wait to share them with you. Thanks for listening.