After this season Williams driver Alex Albon will no longer be a part of the Red Bull program.
Albon made his racing debut in 2019 with Red Bull’s junior squad, Toro Rosso, after placing third in the Drivers’ Standings in Formula 2. That year George Russell won the Formula 2 championship as Lando Norris finished second joining Williams and McLaren respectively.
Albon and Daniil Kvyat performed well in the first half of the season, but Pierre Gasly, who had been promoted to Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen after his stellar tenure with Toro Rosso, was having trouble.
Eventually, Red Bull bosses Christian Horner and Dr. Helmut Marko had to concede that the Frenchman’s promotion was “premature,” and they returned him to the Faenza-based squad.
He was replaced by Albon, who improved over the rest of the season and may have helped secure a one-two in Brazil had he not been eliminated by Sir Lewis Hamilton.
However, the 2020 season proved to be more hard for the Thai-British driver, and despite two podium results, his performances were inconsistent, which caused him to finish far behind Verstappen, who was continuously battling the dominant Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.
At the conclusion of that season, he was also dismissed, and after Sergio Perez had taken his place, he took a year off to compete in the DTM.
However, he immediately made a return to Formula 1 with Williams after Red Bull agreed to loan him out, and he has since scored three points, moving him up to 18th in the Drivers’ Standings in a Williams car that is the slowest on the grid.
The 26-year-old just signed a new contract with Williams, which commits him to staying through at least the following year. As a result, his relationship with Red Bull is all but gone.
“That’s pretty much it now, I’m a total Williams driver,” Albon told the Mirror. “I had a link with Red Bull through this year, I still have a great relationship with Red Bull… Like Williams, they gave me a chance in Formula 1, and I really enjoy the people there.”
“They’ve always been really supportive to me, but now it’s more of a focus with Williams.”
Albon watched as Verstappen won the world title in dramatic fashion while serving as Red Bull’s reserve driver last season.
Red Bull is currently 118 points ahead of Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship, and the Dutchman currently leads Perez by 93 points in the Drivers’ Standings. Albon is happy to witness the success of his former squad after years of toil throughout the turbo-hybrid era to get there.
“Max, Red Bull, they’ve really hit their stride in the last couple of years, they’ve always been good at regulation changes historically, and even the stuff they did with Honda and going into the new era with their Powertrains, it’s impressive,” he said.
“They’re really creating their own team… For sure, I don’t think it’s going to be a runaway, we know what Mercedes can do and what Ferrari have got, they still have a very strong car, but have the upper hand at the moment.”
Albon’s teammate Nicholas Latifi is now without a contract for the upcoming season.
In what has been the craziest of silly seasons in 2022, Mick Schumacher, Logan Sargeant, Daniel Ricciardo, Nyck de Vries, and Formula 2 driver Logan Sargeant have all been associated with the seat.
