Albon: One of my first words was ‘Ferrari’

"Give a child paper and colored pencils and ask them to draw a car; they will make it a red one," Enzo Ferrari once said, and that is why Red is Ferrari's signature color.

Over the years, Ferrari and Red have always been connected, as well as the connection between Formula 1 and the famous Italian carmaker.

Alex Albon, like any kid seemed to like Red cars, and Ferrari in particular, which he revealed was how the racing seed was planted early on in his life.

Speaking to the High Performance Podcast, Albon said: "I was an obsessed kid when I was growing up. One of my first words was ‘Ferrari’, which I would call ‘Rari’.

"It was Ferrari and then exhausts – I loved seeing four tailpipes – which were ‘smokes’. So I always used to shout out ‘smokes’ or ‘Rari’.

"In terms of a car feeling, I was a massive Michael Schumacher fan. I used to throw the biggest tantrums as a kid if Michael didn’t win.

"My mum used to have a VHS of a 2001 Formula 1 highlights review, and I knew all the races that he won that year, so as soon as I had an off – or a bad day or whatever – that was straight in, playing Michael wins," he recalled.

Albon also revealed that he drew inspiration from his father who was a racing driver, he said: "It was early on. I always wanted to be a racing driver and my dad used to race.

"I’d call him semi-professional, I think he’d like that! But he was good, he was genuinely good at his job," the Thai claimed.

Albon said he did not get to watch his father race when he was a child, pointing out: "I kind of got into racing as he stopped, so there was a cross over there.

"But he was the one – he was my engineer, my mechanic, my driver coach – that was very much a father/son thing," he concluded.

Albon has had a tough career in F1 so far, starting at Toro Rosso (now AlphaTauri) in 2019, only to be promoted to Red Bull from the Belgian Grand Prix that year replacing the struggling Pierre Gasly.

He remained with Red Bull for 2020, but was replaced by Sergio Perez ahead of 2021, and after one year on the sidelines, he replaces George Russell at Williams in 2022.

Since then, Albon has done a decent job with Williams, extracting the most out of the mediocre machinery at his disposal.

Reports earlier in 2023 linked Albon with a move to Ferrari, reportedly to replace Carlos Sainz, but Frederic Vasseur shot the rumours down.