Alex Albon: “I feel pretty much back to normal”

I’m pleased to say that after everything that happened at Silverstone, I’m feeling fine!

I’ve had a pretty relaxing few days and have used that time to recover; I’m in the simulator today (Wednesday) and just looking to get my eye in for Austria.

Obviously, Silverstone didn’t go quite as planned.

It all happened so quickly. I only really saw what actually happened with the crash when I watched the replays back.

But, it was just one of those things. The good thing is that it looks like our aero package is salvageable. The guys are now obviously working really hard to get that fixed and ready for Austria.

I’m feeling positive.

It’s a shame we had that incident as I think we could have scored some points at Silverstone.

But, we’ll now focus on Austria and see if we can do the business there.

It was just one of those things. Crashes happen, and, luckily, everyone in the crash was OK.

On my side, I feel pretty much back to normal.

I’m just taking it a little bit easier with Patrick, my performance coach, and making sure I’m back to top fitness for Friday.

Obviously, it can sound quite dramatic when people go to hospital.

But, to reassure everyone, I just went for precautionary checks. It’s standard procedure, really.

They’ve got the best people working in Formula One, so I was airlifted to the hospital as a precaution.

I was feeling a little bit uncomfortable and the crash felt bigger than it actually was. On my body, it felt like a bigger crash than I expected.

Of course, it wasn’t ideal, but it ended up being just a few bumps and bruises.

There was nothing major at all, so it was all good in the end.

No hard feelings. And as I say, it was just one of those things.

Just for a bit more context, I was playing Sudoku in the hospital bed with Lily, my girlfriend, and I was also watching the race on my phone!

I was keeping an eye on how Nicky was doing and seeing if he could get some points.

It was still a good race for us as a team and I was still supporting him on the ‘sidelines’!

We’re looking ahead to Austria now. Having been a Red Bull driver, it’s a place I know well.

On paper, I think it’s a track that Williams have done pretty well at in the past.

George had some very good qualifying sessions there last year, and again, on paper, I think it will suit our car a bit more than other circuits.

The Red Bull Ring is a great place to test the upgrade package out. It’s got a good mix of low speed and high speed corners, which makes our set-up important, especially because there’s so few corners to get right.

You’re looking for hundredths around this track, more than tenths, so, if we can be in the ballpark for the weekend, I think we’ll be in for a good race.

I’m excited to be racing there again and we’ve also got a tyre test the week after the Grand Prix which will be good for us - again, more mileage and more running on the aero package.