ALBON LANDS RED BULL DRIVE FOR REST OF 2019
Young British-thai driver grabs dream chance at F1’s top table
London-born Thai Alex Albon has been handed a dream drive at Red Bull for the remainder of the 2019 season.
He will replace struggling Frenchman Pierre Gasly in the Honda-powered team for the last nine races of the campaign, and his performances will be assessed for a full-time seat alongside Max Verstappen in 2020.
Albon made his Formula 1 debut with Toro Rosso this season and has scored points in five of the 12 races so far. He will get his first chance to race the Red Bull at the Belgian Grand Prix on September 1.
British-born Thai Alex Albon has been named as a shock successor to Pierre Gasly as part of the Red Bull Racing team for the remainder of the 2019 Formula 1 season.
Gasly’s position in the team since his promotion at the start of this term has been under scrutiny after a string of poor results alongside his team-mate Max Verstappen.
Gasly has been unable to land a podium with the Honda-powered Red Bull, which has been a two-time winner in Verstappen’s hands. Gasly’s best result in 2019 has been a single fourth place, which he achieved at Silverstone in July.
The 23-year-old Frenchman was drafted into the Toro Rosso squad in the latter part of 2017 to replace Russian Daniil Kvyat, who had shown lacklustre pace up to that point. Gasly was retained by Toro Rosso for the 2018 campaign and he finished in the top 10 on five occasions.
Verstappen is third in the 2019 championship on 181 points, while Gasly is sixth, but he is 118 points adrift of the sister machine. Red Bull-honda is also 44 points behind Ferrari in the race for second spot in the constructors’ contest.
Evaluation
Paddock insiders had expected Albon’s Toro
Rosso team-mate Daniil Kvyat to replace Gasly, who will now step down to the second-string squad in a straight swap.
Kvyat has scored more points than his team-mate this season – 27 compared to 16 for Albon – and he also landed the team’s second ever podium finish in grand prix racing with third place at the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim.
However, he has been sidestepped in favour of
Albon, who is in his maiden year at the top level. Albon, who was third in the F2 contest with four wins in 2018, joined Toro Rosso at the start of the season.
The son of former British Touring Car Championship racer Nigel, Albon has scored points on five occasions and scored a best finish of sixth place, also in the German Grand Prix.
A statement from Red Bull said that the nine-race run-in to the 2019 season would give it time to evaluate Albon’s potential and there was a chance he would be promoted to a full-time drive with the team in the future.
The statement said: “Red Bull are in the unique position of having four talented Formula 1 drivers under contract who can be rotated between the [main] team and Toro Rosso.
“The team will use the next nine races to evaluate Alex’s performance in order to make an informed decision as to who will drive alongside Max in 2020.”
Future perfect
Red Bull, through its talent development scheme, has a long history of being harsh with its driver policy. Several drivers have fallen off the energy drinks firm’s staircase of talent, usually at the stage where they join the top flight with Toro Rosso.
Only three of the 13 drivers who have come through the Toro Rosso team have made the full-time step to the top table and been able to make a lasting impression. Sebastian Vettel took part in his first full season with the Italian-based operation in 2008 before he was promoted to the front rank. Australian Daniel Ricciardo was also picked by the Red Bull bosses after two seasons with Toro Rosso.
Current incumbent Max Verstappen also spent a season and a half with the team before he was selected to replace Kvyat after four races in 2016.