Alexander Albon has admitted his chance to drive for Red Bull may have come too early in his Formula 1 career.

While Albon is over a year older than Max Verstappen , he has started just 12 races to his new team mate’s 93. Albon only drove an F1 car for the first time earlier this year ahead of his F1 debut with Toro Rosso.

But while he admits the timing of his mid-season move into the top team isn’t idea, he sees it as an “opportunity” and isn’t “doubting myself.”

“You have to go into it as confident as you can,” said Albon. “I know how I am, I’ve only done six months in a Formula 1 car, so there is definitely room for improvement. When I look back at how I was in Melbourne and how I am now I definitely improved as a driver.

“So I know that kind of progress is only going to continue. Of course jumping into a car this early I do feel like in a way you wish it had happened a bit later. But I’m still very excited and I can’t wait to get started.”

Having only driven for Toro Rosso previously, Albon says he “can’t really tell from experience what it’s like to start with a new team midway through.”

However he said he’s already experienced the stresses of adapting to a new car once this year. “We did some sim this weekend just to try to get the first initial feeling,” he said. “Of course the cars are different but in the end they still have four wheels, we’ll get used to it.

“In terms of the whole feeling of not being ready… at the beginning of the year in February when I did drive the car I felt more in the same situation than I do now. That kind of anxiety, stress about what it’s going to be like, I kind of went through that already in January so coming into the summer break I was a lot more relaxed about it. And again we’ll see.”

Albon said he hasn’t been distracted by Pierre Gasly’s struggles in the car he will now be driving. “I wasn’t looking too much at Pierre in that sense, I was just focusing on myself.

“Of course I think Max is on top of his game right now so it will never be easy. With Pierre I wasn’t really involved in all of that I didn’t really look too much on where he was struggling. [I’m] just still kind of trying to do my own thing and trying to get on top of the car.”

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2019 F1 season