Ricciardo's time away from F1 helps 'get rid of demons' - Albon

Alex Albon believes having time away from Formula 1 will benefit Daniel Ricciardo on his return to the grid with AlphaTauri.

The Thai-British driver was ousted at the end of the 2020 season in favour of Sergio Perez at Red Bull, spending much of the 2021 season on the sidelines competing in DTM.

When asked whether he related to Ricciardo, Albon told media, including RacingNews365: "Definitely. I had a year out, he's had a bit a little bit less, but I really do think that year out helped me.

"When you're in the circus and things aren't going well and you're just going race to race, you're not really able to reflect and understand what's going on, you're in the washing machine a little bit.

"It's important to be able to reflect and to improve, but it's also just good where you get time away and you can fully reset mentally."

Albon: Reset important to regain confidence

Albon describes his time away from F1 as being a 'reset' which enabled him to focus on his confidence behind the wheel, after going through a negative spiral at Red Bull.

"The reset is very important, you start to lose a bit of confidence and having time away gets rid of the demons in some respects," explained Albon.

"I valued my time in DTM because it was actually driving something a little bit different. But it gave me confidence in a different kind of way, because I was still driving a racing car.

"You still need to be confident driving that car kind of car and it did that to me. Then it felt like when it came back into my first winter testing back in the Williams, straightaway it felt like I was more confident than I left.

"Just seeing Daniel and seeing the buzz he has, I think that's happened to him as well."