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Formula 1 Australian GP
Albon: Inexperience played part in practice crash
Formula 1 rookie Alex Albon blamed inexperience and overheated tyres for his red-flag causing crash in first practice for the Australian Grand Prix.
Jonathan Noble
Published: Mar 15, 2019, 10:27 AM
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The Toro Rosso driver had a spin on the exit of Turn 1 in the opening session, knocking off his front wing and causing a brief stoppage to track action.
Reflecting on what happened, Albon said that he had been caught out as he started to push more in his first official outing on a grand prix weekend.
“I was just building up my confidence, and was getting a little better,” he said. “Then I was caught out by the spin at the end of that run.
“I think it was just a little bit of inexperience and the tyres were a little bit too hot. Was a combination of the two. But nothing really too serious, and in the end run two in FP1 was quite good.
“Considering it was my first time here, I was quite happy with how it went. But that did mean going into FP2 a bit more steady and just building up the rhythm.”
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Albon had another drama later on when a problem with his headrest forced him to abort his lap after a tricky moment
“It was a weird one and I've never had it happen before,” he said. “I was going through Turn 11, and as I was going into 12 I couldn't open the steering. So I was kind of stuck on the headrest.
“I just had to lift off my hand and abort the lap. Nothing too serious, but it took me by surprise. We'll see now if we can give me a bit more clearance for my hands.”
Albon said that one of the biggest things he had to get used to was the wind – and especially how a tailwind would affect braking for some corners.
“It's the wind, that's the main thing,” he said. “In Barcelona we were really lucky with that stuff, it was zero. It's amazing.
"It's just understanding it, and even on my side not reporting it – saying 'this corner is this', but it's not actually, it's just because the wind is doing it.”
He added: “There are big tailwinds, which is really new to me. So obviously with these cars, they're so sensitive that tailwinds, headwinds, they're changing balances massively.
"I already was used to it from the previous laps, but of course it doesn't help when you have a gust or tailwind into Turn 1.”
Albon’s teammate Daniil Kvyat said the wind in Australia was nothing unusual though.
“It is different conditions to Barcelona,” said the Russian. “The track is bumpy, and there is more wind.
"We had, let’s say, seven days almost perfect at testing at Barcelona, so coming here, this track is more of a street circuit, so of course it is a big difference. But yeah, it is quite normal here.”
Additional reporting by Adam Cooper
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