Miami F1 EXCLUSIVE: Alex Albon Offers Fix For DRS Upset After Controversial Last Race
Alex Harrington interviews Alex Albon ahead of the Miami Grand Prix weekend. After hearing that the first two DRS zones had been shortened at the Florida track, this was of course a hot topic of discussion as the Williams driver explained his thoughts on the alteration.
I walked into the paddock, now homed in the centre of the Hard Rock Stadium. Only minutes ago I'd been watching the drivers show their skills in American football and looking up at the large screen showing how quickly drivers had completed the makeshift course, Alex headlined the list, but as I entered the British team's hospitality suite, Nyck de Vries was at work to strip the English-Thai driver of his number 1 status.
Last weekend's Azerbaijan Grand Prix was a snore-fest for many fans of F1, with the grand prix race consisting of only 23 overtakes. There were a few factors in this, with the first obviously being the reduction of DRS. But with Mercedes driver George Russell alerting the media that the drivers weren't considered in this change, this was a burning question I had for Alex as he sat down in front of me after a strong handshake.
Alex Harrington: Would you have preferred to be part of that decision-making process on shortening the DRS zones at Azerbaijan?
Alex Albon: Yeah, it's basically a discussion about the rule makers and the drivers. And we're in a fairly unique spot where we know what the cars feel like and we're the only ones that do so. It, it's very hard to implement laws and change things when clearly, as good of a job as they do they don't know what driving the cars are like and how the following feels. For example, like in Baku, we told them if you gave us a heads up, we'd have told you it's a bad idea. But unfortunately, it was changed. It looks like it's changed for this weekend as well.
Even before last week, we said it's not really maybe the greatest idea to do. And we saw how boring the race was last week. For sure it's a balance, but, maybe it's not the drivers to say, but maybe a representative? Someone who's young enough to know what these cars feel like? There are a lot of experts, a lot of drivers out there who have retired and are in, but still very knowledgeable about the world of former one and still involved. Someone like a Jolyon Palmer, for example.
AH: We've got Daniel Ricardo somewhere around there.
AA: We've got Daniel Ricardo. I feel like he would just create some, like we have like a...
AH: "We need a flip."
AA: Yeah. Like a Mario Kart item box thing to collect at the middle straight. So, maybe not him, but someone else. Yes.
Alex is politely inferring that someone entirely unbiased should work on behalf of the drivers to communicate the issues and opinions they have on decisions that directly affect the track. This includes the changing of DRS zones, but also other aspects such as the types of kerbs used around the track, from a safety point of view.
It's fair to say that the drivers aren't happy about the DRS changes at Miami, with the first two of three zones being shortened by 75 metres. This is likely to hinder overtaking, but a resurfacing of the track to improve grip levels is also going to make the race much more interesting.