Alexander Albon makes his debut in F1 in 2019 with Toro Rosso having started our as a Red Bull junior and then being dropped before being welcomed back at the end of last season. Marko has not been very complimentary about Albon in the past so his recall is very much a U-turn on the management front.
Albon races under a Thai licence and is a practicing Buddhist but is actually half British as he was born in London and grew up in Ipswich. His junior career is pretty good without being outstanding. Why? Well mainly because he has followed Charles LeClerc up the ladder. To his credit Albon has always pushes LeClerc to perform better and personally I think he is well deserving of his spot in F1. He might have pushed LeClerc a bit more in F2 in 2017 but for a broken collar bone sustained whilst mountain biking. He seemed to be fully recovered for 2018 though and in one of the strongest F2 fields in years he more than held his own and ended up second in the championship. Originally signed to drive for Nissan in Formula E he was pryed away by the offer of the Torro Rosso drive.
Albon has always been a demon on one lap pace and is more than adept at mixing it up in the pack so hopefully he'll be a good asset to F1. He is now very much in bed with the Red Bull programme and, with the exception of Carlos Sainz, those drivers don't find seats in F1 outside of the Red Bull teams. Lucky for him Red Bull have just promotes Pierre Gasly who everyone is still unsure about and might very well sink opening the top seat up to Alex. The only draw back to this is an unpredicatable team mate in Kvyat and the Ticktum/Schumacher threat on his shoulder. Personally I rate Albon higher than Gasly but we'll see how it plays out.
Another thing to note is a conversation on here between F1Brits_90 and Galahad. F1Brits_90 was talking about Leclerc being the first driver from Monaco to score points in F1 in 50 years and how it would be a streak that would be we be broken. Galahad off handedly remarked that the only way it could be beat was if a Thai driver scored points. I doubt either knew Albon was on the horizon but hell it seems prophetic to me!
Any thoughts on Albon?
Albon races under a Thai licence and is a practicing Buddhist but is actually half British as he was born in London and grew up in Ipswich. His junior career is pretty good without being outstanding. Why? Well mainly because he has followed Charles LeClerc up the ladder. To his credit Albon has always pushes LeClerc to perform better and personally I think he is well deserving of his spot in F1. He might have pushed LeClerc a bit more in F2 in 2017 but for a broken collar bone sustained whilst mountain biking. He seemed to be fully recovered for 2018 though and in one of the strongest F2 fields in years he more than held his own and ended up second in the championship. Originally signed to drive for Nissan in Formula E he was pryed away by the offer of the Torro Rosso drive.
Albon has always been a demon on one lap pace and is more than adept at mixing it up in the pack so hopefully he'll be a good asset to F1. He is now very much in bed with the Red Bull programme and, with the exception of Carlos Sainz, those drivers don't find seats in F1 outside of the Red Bull teams. Lucky for him Red Bull have just promotes Pierre Gasly who everyone is still unsure about and might very well sink opening the top seat up to Alex. The only draw back to this is an unpredicatable team mate in Kvyat and the Ticktum/Schumacher threat on his shoulder. Personally I rate Albon higher than Gasly but we'll see how it plays out.
Another thing to note is a conversation on here between F1Brits_90 and Galahad. F1Brits_90 was talking about Leclerc being the first driver from Monaco to score points in F1 in 50 years and how it would be a streak that would be we be broken. Galahad off handedly remarked that the only way it could be beat was if a Thai driver scored points. I doubt either knew Albon was on the horizon but hell it seems prophetic to me!
Any thoughts on Albon?
