Redbull driver Alexander Albon again had a disappointing finish at the Russian Grand Prix, and Robert Doornbos who was the team’s test driver and also competed for three races is not sure how much longer the Thai driver can get away with it.
Albon had seemed to up his game when he scored his maiden podium finish at the Tuscan Grand Prix which was held at Mugello after he finished third in the race. However, it was shortly followed by one of his worst finishes for the Redbull team as he managed P10 in the Russian GP qualifying round as his teammate Max Verstappen managed an impressive P2. Things weren’t much better in the race after Albon started in P15 as he spent the better part of the race battling slower cars on the track, and eventually finished 10th after being passed by Pierre Gasly on his AlphaTauri AT01.
“Two weeks ago he was the hero of the team and he got his first podium and this weekend he was hopeless,” said Doornbos, who used to be a test driver for the team and competed in three races.
“When you finish a minute and a half behind your teammate in P10… It would have been a very difficult debrief for Albon, and I am curious about how many times he can still do that.”
“It’s probably a very long discussion at Red Bull about who should drive the car in 2021. Pierre Gasly is of course, waiting on the seat, but it’s a bit crazy to suddenly give him the seat in the middle of the season.”
With Pierre Gasly bringing out an impressive performance, Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg being available in the driver market, many feel that Albon may lose his seat for the 2021 Formula 1 season. However, Doornbos thinks the redbull driver can still secure his seat if he pushes his performance to the limits in the upcoming races.
“I think Albon still has time to secure his seat until the end of the season”, he added.
“You can see that Albon has no confidence and has a lot of trouble finding the balance… [but] he has done well in all junior classes and at Toro Rosso, he drove beautiful races,” he added.
“At Red Bull, he can do that on Sunday afternoon. Then, at the end of the race, you see daring overtaking actions such as moves on the outside and that’s what Helmut Marko likes to see.”
