Alexander Albon was struggling with his e-foil while on vacation in Sardinia when a completely relaxed stranger zoomed past him—a man he later recognized as Max Verstappen…
Williams driver Alexander Albon has recounted a surprising encounter with Max Verstappen while trying to learn how to e-foil in Sardinia during the Formula 1 summer break in August.
On the official Williams podcast, Team Torque—where Albon was a guest alongside teammate Carlos Sainz and team principal James Vowles—the Thai driver first talked about his varied schedule during the summer break, and then recounted his unexpected encounter with the four-time world champion.
During a four-day stay at a popular vacation spot in Sardinia, Albon tried his hand at e-foiling. This involves riding an electrically powered surfboard equipped with a hydrofoil that lifts out of the water at a certain speed.
While Albon was still struggling to keep his balance on the board, he was overtaken by another vacationer. The man was sitting relaxed at the edge of his board and zoomed past him at high speed. As it turned out later, it was none other than Verstappen.
“I’d just learned how to ride an e-foil. Have you ever tried that e-foil thing? So I’m riding around and suddenly I see this guy zooming past me,” Albon recounts. “He’s sitting on the edge, his legs almost hanging over the front of the board, and he’s going full throttle. And I mean really fast. He looks like a Buddha, totally relaxed, as he glides by.”
“I was just thinking, ‘Who’s that guy?’ while I was wobbling around myself. It was Max. I thought to myself: That can’t be! At that point, I didn’t know it was him yet. I said to Lily, ‘Look who that guy is.’ And then, of course, Kelly and Lily started messaging each other, and at some point they said, ‘Oh, we’re right next to you.’”
In the end, Albon even got a comment from Verstappen: “Oh yeah, I saw you. I saw how you kept falling off your e-foil!”
Albon’s summer break, however, wasn’t just about his stay in Sardinia. The Williams driver also took a short trip to South Africa, spent a week in the Dolomites, and then completed another week of training in Monaco.
Formula 1 has since returned from its summer break. At Zandvoort, Albon finished 16th in the F1 Sprint. The Williams driver also qualified in 16th place for the Dutch Grand Prix, which starts on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. CEST.
