“My dream is to be with Red Bull for a long time” – It’s Alex Albon vs Sergio Perez for next season’s Red Bull seat ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Alex Albon has had the toughest season of his young motorsport career, and it could get worse if he loses his Red Bull seat to Sergio Perez for next season. The Thai driver has not won any race and managed two podiums, at Mugello and Bahrain. Sergio Perez, meanwhile, comes into the season finale at Abu Dhabi at the back of a fantastic win at the Sakhir GP, his first-ever in F1.
@alex_albon can’t be removed by neither Marko nor Horner! @redbullracing Thai owner Chalerm Yoovidhya protect half Thai Albon all the way! pic.twitter.com/3CpMrHIi9d
— Topfuel F1 (@TopFuelF1) December 8, 2020
For Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner and Motorsport Advisor Dr. Helmut Marko, the upcoming race could be a shoot-out between the two. Perez starts as the favourite, but Albon is defiant on keeping his place intact at the Milton Keynes-based outfit. He was speaking to Formula 1’s Lawrence Baretto:
“My dream is to be with Red Bull for a long time. I just need the results, it’s as simple as that really. I’m here, I’m ready, we’ll see how it goes.”
Alex Albon has support of Horner and Marko
Christian Horner has time and again stressed that they want Albon to prove himself and retain his seat. This kind of generosity has never really been seen from the Red Bull F1 hierarchy. And Albon has stressed how important the support of Horner and his team has been to him in these challenging times.
“I’ve had a lot of support not just through my trainer and my family but the team. It’s always been there from the beginning. Since I stepped into the team at Spa (in 2019), I felt an overwhelming feeling of support from the mechanics and engineers, Christian and Dr Marko. It’s never gone away, it’s always been there, and that’s made a big difference. You can go into the factory or the paddock every day knowing the team are behind you.”
Albon: Max is an unbelievably talented driver
Albon also spoke about the comparisons between him and teammate Max Verstappen, who is one of the best currently. To be fair to Albon, Verstappen has much more experience, and even the likes of Valtteri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel have struggled against their Mercedes and Ferrari teammates respectively. Albon believes it is great to have him in the team, but at the same time, his “statistics don’t look great” as a result.
“(Comparisons) happen, it’s inevitable. It’s two cars in a team, so you are only being compared to your teammate. I see Max as an unbelievably talented driver. He is extremely quick, which has its pro and cons. The pros being I’m up against someone who, in terms of personal development and looking where he gets lap time, there is no one better. On the other side, of course, he’s very quick so the statistics don’t look great but I see it as a challenge, I see it as an area where I can improve as a driver.”
