mobanmarketToro Rosso deputy tech chief Jody Eggington heaped praise on Alexander Albon, insisting the rookie followed a “fantastic approach” and exceeded the team’s expectations on his F1 debut this week in Barcelona.
A young novice who enters pre-season testing without any F1 experience is practically unheard of in this day and age of development and reserve drivers in the sport.
Albon had only enjoyed a brief run on the team’s filming day at Misano before he took to the Circuit de Catalunya track on Tuesday.
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By Thursday afternoon, the 22-year-old had topped a session and put the second fastest lap of the entire week on the board. Additionally, he also left a big first impression on his team.
“He’d not driven a Formula 1 car before,” said Egginton.
“He’d done a reasonable amount of simulator work, which you can imagine we’ve done a big simulator programme and he’s done a lot of time with us.
“On the filming day he did a good job getting in and here he’s been fantastic.
“The install off [spin] was partly engineering induced, it wasn’t directly his fault to be fair, after that he got into the programme and he’s been great.”
©ToroRosso