Red Bull confident of cure for "sensitive" Albon's car issues

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner is confident the team can adapt the RB16 to suit the “sensitive” driving of Alex Albon.

The Thai-British driver suffered what Horner referred to as his “hardest [race] of the year” at the Sochi Autodrom, battling from 15th after being hit with a grid penalty to score a single point for 10th place in the Russian Grand Prix

The struggle for performance across the weekend was in contrast to team-mate Max Verstappen's stellar qualifying lap and polished drive to second, and also Albon's own superb performance a fortnight previously during the Tuscan Grand Prix when he scored his first podium.

"[It's a] Shame after the podium two weeks ago that this one has probably [been] one of the hardest of the year for him,” said Horner.

"I think we have understood some of the issues with the car and we are obviously working hard to address those and hopefully in the remaining races we will be able to take steps to improve the car in that area."

Albon currently sits fifth in the drivers’ standings, a point behind McLaren’s Lando Norris and on exactly half the total of Verstappen’s points haul.

Outlining Albon’s difficulties, Horner added: “I think that Alex is particularly sensitive to some of the characteristics of the car.

"It was accentuated at this kind of circuit with short corners and big braking zones so plenty to look at for him. His second half of the race he recovered reasonably well but it was a difficult weekend for him.”

Verstappen was able to split the Mercedes cars in both qualifying and the race, securing his seventh podium of the campaign with an impressive drive to second behind Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas.

Horner confirmed, though, both Red Bull cars were hampered by similar energy recovery limitations.

He explained, "I think this circuit was always going to be difficult for us. We have quite a lot of clipping here and that has an effect.

"So I think it was skewed by that energy recovery. We knew that before we got here so it was always going to be a more challenging race for us."

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