F1 Talk: Is Albon doing enough to remain at Red Bull?

Alexander Albon is a fan favourite and his journey to Formula 1 and Red Bull has been a special one.

From getting a very late call to join Toro Rosso for the 2019 season, to jumping into Red Bull after just half a season replacing an underperforming Pierre Gasly.

We must not forget that this is just Albon’s second season in Formula 1 but is he really doing enough to retain his seat alongside Max Verstappen at Red Bull?

At the moment he is yet to outqualify Verstappen in a normal qualifying session, Verstappen did not set a time at the Italian Grand Prix last year.

Worryingly just once under normal circumstances, has Albon qualified within four tenths of his teammate from the 15 races they have had together.

It would be easy to say Albon simply needs to improve his qualifying performance but it does not look like it will happen.

Compared to Gasly’s time at Red Bull, Albon is doing a lot worse in qualifying than Gasly did.

The second Silverstone race was regarded as Albon’s best race of the season so far but its a delusion in my opinion.

Red Bull had a race winning and Albon made some stunning overtakes at Silverstone to finish in fifth position.

He was 39 seconds behind Verstappen though and is a fifth place a good result when your teammate won the grand prix?

Albon’s racecraft is very good and it has somewhat saved him. But, a good number two driver has to do better than what Albon is doing right now.

Without doubt had Albon won in Austria it would have done a lot of confidence for him and perhaps we would be looking at a different story.

Even if Albon won though, you cannot just look at one race and say a driver is doing a great job because he won once.

Had their been no safety cars and it was a normal race, Albon would have finished a long way off the pace. The same can be said with Brazil last year.

Great Formula 1 drivers should be able to bounce back from a tough weekend or some misfortune but Albon has not been able to do that.

You can argue Red Bull have promoted him too early and perhaps they have. But, when you get a chance in Formula 1 in a top seat (which not everyone does) you have to deliver and at least show potential.

I have yet to see that potential from Albon. Just think about how much of a role Albon could have had to at least hinder Mercedes.

In a normal race, Albon is not even within pitstop range of the Mercedes prior to the first pitstop so Lewis Hamilton or Valtteri Bottas can make a pitstop knowing Albon is already out of play and cannot hold them up if he wanted to.

This is the problem. Albon is qualifying outside the top five meaning he is having to make recovery drivers every single time when he should not even be in that position.

If Albon was up there at the first Silverstone race, Red Bull would have won the race with one of their drivers because one would pit at the end to take the fastest lap and one would have picked up the pieces of a three-wheeling Hamilton.

At the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, Mercedes could split their strategy to attack Verstappen. Had Albon been there, Mercedes would have had less strategic options and things would have been more comfortable for Verstappen.

Albon himself could have had a maiden podium, instead he was battling in the midfield.

Spain was his worst weekend yet. Seven tenths down on a track which the teams and drivers know like the back of their hand and even with a clear car advantage in the race Albon was dismal.

Red Bull got the strategy wrong by using the hard tyre but even on the medium tyre at the end of the grand prix, Carlos Sainz managed to drive away on the same tyres.

Red Bull have the second quickest car in race trim so on a bad day Albon should be 6th and on a normal day he should be 4th.

Apart from a few occasions, Albon is always slower than Verstappen even if Verstappen is on older tyres or a harder tyre compound. In Spain, Albon was given a poor strategy but his final stint on the medium tyres was very poor.

Carlos Sainz was on medium tyres too in the McLaren but pulled away from him. The McLaren should not be pulling away from a Red Bull and it is worrying that Albon is so far off the pace.

Red Bull demoted Gasly because he was just fighting in the midfield and unable to help him. If anything Gasly did a better job in the Red Bull than Albon has.

It is pointless for Red Bull to have a driver battling for fifth and sixth when they have a driver who is trying to defeat the Mercedes.

I will be astonished if Albon is still with Red Bull in 2021 and if I was the team, I would go outside the Red Bull driver programme and get Nico Hulkenberg in the car for the rest of the season.