Albon says getting full-time Red Bull F1 drive feels “crazy”

Alexander Albon admits it feels “crazy” to have landed a full-time drive with Red Bull for the 2020 Formula 1 season less than a year into his career.

Albon was drafted in to the Red Bull senior team to replace the underperforming Pierre Gasly just 12 grands prix into his F1 career, having originally been signed to contest his rookie campaign with Toro Rosso.

A streak of top-six finishes since his Red Bull debut at the Belgium Grand Prix helped Albon secure the sole-remaining seat at the Milton Keynes squad alongside Max Verstappen for 2020, with confirmation coming earlier this week ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix.

“It’s crazy, really,” Albon said when he addressed the media at Interlagos ahead of this weekend’s penultimate round of the season.

“I say it a lot, but I truly mean it when I say it. To get the call-up originally after Hungary, it was quite a daunting prospect. But I felt like I could do something.

“To be honest the races that I’ve had, I been I’ve been pretty happy with. And yes, of course, to get that final call to tell me that I’m staying for next year, it feels really good. Really good.

“The races that I’ve had I’ve been pretty happy with and of course to get that final call to tell me that I’m safe for next year, it feels really good.”

The British-born Thai driver insisted he never stressed about the situation of not knowing where he would be driving in 2020 and instead opted to focus on each race at a time to get the most out of his performances.

"I didn’t know when the decision was going to be made,” he explained.

“For me it was just thinking about the races, making sure I was happy with how I was progressing.

“I think that was the important thing, just trying to show that I am making steps forward.

“In terms of when I was going to get called, of course I knew it was going to happen, but it wasn’t a stress when, it was just ‘focus on the job in hand’.

“To be honest the way I have been thinking about things is trying to be in the present and not thinking about all the external stuff.

“It even carries on to now. I’ll just carry on doing what I’m doing for the rest of the season and onto next year because knowing or not knowing wouldn’t have changed the situation.

“It’s still the results that count and that was my focus.”

Additional reporting by Julianne Cerasoli.