Christijan Albers says he struggles to relate to the unusually harmonious relationships between today\u2019s Formula 1 drivers.<\/p>\n
Speaking on De Telegraaf\u2019s F1 podcast, the former Minardi and Midland driver contrasted the current scene – where rivals often travel, train and socialise together – with his own era, when most drivers barely spoke and some openly despised one another.<\/p>\n
The discussion was sparked by De Telegraaf\u2019s F1 correspondent Erik van Haren, who recalled: “I had dinner in Budapest on Saturday, and there was a former champion at the table. He said: I think Max (Verstappen) is the only one who\u2019s really good.<\/p>\n
“He thought a lot of the drivers in the field were a bit average. He said he missed the personalities in the sport. These days, they\u2019re all friends. You see them laughing together.<\/p>\n
“He\u2019s missing that spark a bit, and things aren\u2019t really happening with Norris and Piastri either. Do you share that opinion?”<\/p>\n
The Lando Norris-Oscar Piastri pairing and 2025 title battle has occasionally produced on-track tension and actual contact, but McLaren has consistently talked up their camaraderie – and the drivers have played along.<\/p>\n
“I find it difficult,” Albers admitted. “Maybe it\u2019s the world that\u2019s changed and the generation we\u2019re in. I never knew it like that.<\/p>\n
“There was more competition with each other. Your teammate was your first rival. It\u2019s not like you just went out for a game of cards. You only socialised on special occasions.”<\/p>\n
Albers suggested the image of genuine friendship between teammates is largely for public consumption. “You can\u2019t tell me that Norris or Piastri sit at home and say to their girlfriend: \u2019What a nice guy, that Norris.\u2019 Or \u2019It\u2019s great that Piastri won\u2019.”<\/p>\n
“Do you really think that happens?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christijan Albers says he struggles to relate to the unusually harmonious relationships between today\u2019s Formula 1 drivers. Speaking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-66028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}