Alex Albon dismissed the rumour that the bill from the Formula 1 drivers' dinner together in Abu Dhabi last week came to a six-figure sum, describing it as "a load of rubbish".
Ahead of the race weekend, the drivers met at a restaurant in the UAE capital city to pay tribute to Sebastian Vettel. The four-time world champion was about to take part in the final race weekend of his F1 career, before hanging up his overalls to spend more time with his family.
The day after it emerged the dinner had been Lewis Hamilton's idea – the Mercedes star even paid for the whole thing. A photo of that bill was shared widely on social media which was claimed to be from the F1 drivers' party, totalling a whopping £115k.
But as was suspected, it was a fake. Albon confirmed as much as he gave an insider's view of how the evening played out. "What a load of rubbish!" he said, before adding: "We're normal people – we're not here expecting caviar on our plate and gold spoons.
"We had a set menu, there were a lot of people with dietary requirements like obviously, Lewis Hamilton is vegan. Lewis covered the bill, very nice of him. He organised it as well – very nice of him."
Albon added: "The dinner, truthfully speaking, was really special. It was a lot of fun. I think every driver, [including] myself, my cheeks were aching just smiling and laughing the whole time, so it was really good."
But he didn't want to go into too much detail about what was said and by whom: "I feel like I'll get in trouble to say who did what – that was a strict policy of the dinner itself. We can't say what happened. There were some very good stories being told."
Grand Prix Drivers' Association chair Alexander Wurz shared a photo of the 20 drivers together on social media. He wrote: "Thanks @LewisHamilton to initiate, and thanks all GDPA members to turn up to show respect to one of the greatest, to one of our directors, and ultimately to our sport (which Sebastian Vettel loves so much)."
Before the meal Hamilton told reporters : "It is going to be sad to see him leave. It has been an unexpected relationship and friendship. It is so difficult when you are so competitive and you are both fighting for something you are passionate about."
