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Red Bull intends to keep Alex Albon alongside Max Verstappen for the 2021 Formula 1 season but will remain “aware” of out-of-contract alternatives like Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg.
Albon was promoted from Toro Rosso to Red Bull Racing in the middle of 2019 as an F1 rookie, swapping seats with Pierre Gasly as the Frenchman endured a trying start to his first year in the senior team.
A solid transition last year did not translate into strong form at the start of 2020, and Albon has often had to rescue race results from a poor qualifying performance while Gasly has enjoyed strong form at the renamed AlphaTauri sister team.
But Red Bull seems unmoved by Gasly’s resurgence and after near-misses in Brazil last year and this season’s opening race in Austria, Albon scored his first F1 podium at Mugello two weeks ago to boost his chances of being retained.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said: “He only feels vulnerable because you guys [the media] keep telling him every week that we should put somebody else in the car.
“It was really good for him to get that result, he came close in Brazil last year, he could have won the opening race in Austria and obviously got turned out of that race.
“To get that first podium and he had to do it the hard way… Daniel [Ricciardo] is one of the hardest racers on the track and to pass him around the outside of Turn 1 as he [Albon] did, it was a great performance from him.
“You can already see him walking a little bit taller, I think that will give him confidence and hopefully he’ll build on that.
“He has got the full support of all the team. I think the team’s doing a good job with him, I think his race engineer is extracting more from him and I think that confidence is growing.”
Albon is under contract at Red Bull for 2021 and the team just needs to choose where it places him.
Though Horner said Albon is only under pressure because of media scrutiny, when asked by The Race if Red Bull would end that speculation by confirming his seat for 2021 he indicated a decision had yet to be made.
“It’ll certainly be before Christmas! All drivers under contract to Red Bull for multiple years,” said Horner.
“There are trigger points at different times in their contract but it’ll certainly be later in the autumn.
“Our intention is to retain Alex, he’s doing a good job.
“He just needs to build on the kind of performance as he put it in Mugello and continue that development.”
Albon does not appear to be under threat of Red Bull swapping him and Gasly again, and Horner has indicated Gasly will remain at AlphaTauri next season, particularly as that team is being repositioned as Red Bull’s ‘sister’ team rather than its ‘junior’.
But that does not mean Albon faces no competition to be Verstappen’s team-mate as Racing Point is dropping leading midfield driver Perez to make room for Sebastian Vettel, while another highly-rated driver in Hulkenberg – who has a good relationship with Verstappen – is also available.
In a Sky interview at Mugello, Horner said he had to keep tabs on out-of-contract options and named Hulkenberg in response to a question that was specifically about Perez.
And at Sochi on Friday, when asked by The Race is Gasly was the Plan B should Albon not be retained, or if the likes of Perez and Hulkenberg would be considered, Horner said: “As far as Pierre’s concerned he’s doing a great job of AlphaTauri, he’s a good fit for them, they enjoy having him within the team and their aspirations as a team have changed.
“So, they need an experienced competitive driver. Our intention is absolutely to retain our current drivers and Alex is our preferred choice.
“Inevitably, you have to be aware of what the other options are out there. But our absolute preference and likelihood is to retain the existing driver line-up that we currently have.”
