Albon has 'surprised' Toro Rosso with his feedback

Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost admits that Alexander Albon has surprised the team with his technical feedback in his rookie season.

The Thai-British has had a strong start to his Formula 1 campaign, out-qualifying teammate Daniil Kvyat in Australia and Bahrain, and picking up his first points at the Sakhir Circuit.

The 20-year-old spent the last two years in Formula 2, before being called up to the Red Bull junior team in place of Brendon Hartley.

"Alex is coming from Formula 2 - he won four races last year, showed a really good performance and from the first test onwards I was really happy to have him in the team,” Tost said. 

“He surprised all of us by a fantastic performance and also by really good technical feedback. He has also a good overview of how to treat the tyres. 

“I must say that Toro Rosso has a very, very strong driver line-up this year and I’m convinced that both of them will have a lot of success in the future.” 

After picking up a P9 result in Bahrain, Albon believes that a stronger result was possible, as he targets improving his results in qualifying

“I enjoyed the race because it was busy and I learned a lot,” Albon stated. 

"We started battling and in Melbourne there wasn’t a lot of that. At least in Bahrain you are able to fight, so I can start to understand what happens when you follow other people and get close and everything like that. 

“I really do think there was more in it, it’s a bit of a shame the start, because I think with clean air we could have done a lot better. 

“Still, I’m happy with the performance. We just need to first qualify a bit better and get into Q3, because I think we can do that and then we’ll see in the race.

“I’m surprised that in Formula 1 you do your own race. Everybody is pitting, exiting the pits, and you don’t really know who you’re fighting. It seems like you just finish the race and you go ‘great, just great!’ That’s F1, I think.”