Written by Joe Man. Edited by Joe Murphy.
Life is tough as a F1 driver. Whilst staying one is even tougher. With only 20 seats available each season, there are not a lot to go around! Money is also a massive driving force these days. If you have big backing of which can be seen with Nikita Massivespin, then you are way more likely to get a drive than many, frankly more talented, drivers.
So what of the last few years dumped drivers? It must be the worst position of all to be let go after being given such an opportunity. The likes of Alex Albon, Stoffel Vandoorne, Nico Hulkenburg and Dani Kyvat are now in limbo land!
It could easily be argued that they are now behind the current crop of F2, or even Formula E, hopefuls.
As reserve drivers it becomes difficult to prove yourself compared to the F2 guys making headlines every weekend.
On top of that, a lot of the current superstars in F1 are so young they will be around for a very long time filling the good seats.
Alex Albon is a good example.
All the talk coming out of Red Bull is how happy they are with how well Albon has been doing in his role as reserve driver. He has just won the latest round of the DTM touring car series at the Nurburgring so things are looking up. Or are they?
Can you see Red Bull reinstating him to the seat next to Verstappen? If you look at there previous driver Pierre Gasly’s performances at Alpha Tauri and even consider some of Sergio Perez’s brilliant drives this year, you feel not.
Gasly is some ways was lucky he got “demoted” to Toro Rosso, now Alpha Tauri, the sister team, whereas Albon ended up with no drive. If you now look at his options they aren’t great.
Both Alfa Romeo and Haas are supplied by Ferrari engines so you would assume they will go for Ferrari academy drivers like Callum Illot or
Robert Schwartzman. Mick Schumacher will have one of the seats and the affotmentioned Mazepin has that crucial financial backing, so it’s hard to see them looking at Albon.
Equally, Williams would require a shift to a Mercedes powered team which, with current tensions, seams unlikely. Mercedes have many young talents of their own.
I feel Alex Albon could really have what it takes to compete at the top. Perez hasn’t done noticeably much better, even with all his experience. Furthermore, if it wasn’t for two clashes with Lewis Hamilton, Albon would have been well and truly ahead.
I hope we haven’t seen the last of this exciting driver.
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