Alexander Albon

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?

 

[RasputinLives]

Albon won't touch Max at the moment - at least not this season. Albon and LeClerc have mixed it up and gone head to head at nearly every level as they've come through the junior system. LeClerc has always shown himself to be quicker over a full year but Albon can beat him in the day. Will be interesting to see if he can get on terms with him for rest of the season considering that Red Bull is improving and the Ferrari appears not to be.

 

[F1Brits_90]

yeah its highly unlikely that he will match Verstappen, not because he isn't good enough because its toughest task on the grid I think only Hamilton maybe Leclerc on his day could beat Verstappen how he's driving. if he finishes 6th 30 secs ahead of B Race & within 10/15 seconds on Verstappen that would be a success.

but I think he capable because of the pressure aspect I know I go on about it but he's come into weekends with bigger pressure with his single seater career on the line, he had 1 race deal in F2 he hadn't impressed could've been all over, get his opptunity repays DAMS faith with next 3 poles. with little budget he knew that he had to challenge for title to have a chance at progression & not end up like a Valsecchi Leimer Rossi Markelov

 

[Il_leone]

Anything less than 20 seconds is what Red Bull want to see and definitely not being lapped. At this stage beat the Ferraris must be the aim

 

[RasputinLives]

How do we think Albon has done in his first two races? He's looked fiesty but his results have not been much better than Gasly. He has been helped by some poorer Max results so there is no proper comparison. It was interesting to me though that last time out, if he's not had mechanical issues, Kvyat was on for a top 6 finish and being top Red Bull driver.

 

[Il_leone]

I think he has done as well as expected when you consider at Spa he was at the back and Monza Red Bull were mysteriously off the pace . This weekend is going to a good assessment of his level on a circuit more suited to Red Bull

 

[RasputinLives]

Nearest he's got to a home race I think (if you don't count Silverstone) so will be interesting.

 

[F1Brits_90]

i think albon is doing better than gasly. just a feeling im getting. he pulled over some great overtakes i think he is being quite conservative in 1st half in the 2 races but nothing wrong with that. because there is no point being awesome for 40 laps but never making the finish & binning it.

difference between albon & gasly is that i think albon has the pace but in early stages cautious. Gasly was behind because he didnt have pace to overtake

 

[RasputinLives]

I'm a big Albon fan but I suspect we all think he is doing better than Gasly because the F1 press talk about him far more positively than they do Gasly. I think their results have been much the same so far. I just think there is more of a willingness within the F1 media for Albon to succeed than there was Gasly.

 

[Il_leone]

So far him and Verstappen have not had a straight head to head quali to gauge their levels

Every race weekend Channel 4 kept slipping in that Gasly was under pressure even though I don't think people cared about him compared to the other top drivers unless you were Red Bull

 

[RasputinLives]

The F1 media were saying Gasly was under pressure before the season had even started. Sometimes it feels like they've written a storyline before things have actually happened.

 

[Il_leone]

Well he has got big shoes to fill because it was Ricciardo's and up against Verstappen which is a serious baptism of fire. There is a feeling that he was promoted because Red Bull were reluctant to pair Verstappen / Sainz again. So you can't say he truly deserved it