Alexander Albon
Alexander Albon Ansusinha is a Thai-British racing driver, currently driving in Formula One for Red Bull Racing, and racing under the Thai flag. He raced for Toro Rosso for the first half of, before being promoted to Red Bull for the second half of the season, replacing Pierre Gasly who returned to Toro Rosso.
After becoming part of the Red Bull Junior Team in 2012 he was promoted to open-wheel cars in the form of a seat with EPIC Racing during the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 2012 season, finishing 38th out of 49 in his debut year. He stayed in Formula Renault 2.0 for two more seasons having secured a seat with KTR, finishing 16th in 2013 and 3rd in 2014. In 2015 Albon switched to European Formula 3, finishing 7th overall. A year later, ART signed Albon to race alongside Charles Leclerc in the GP3 Series, finishing second in the drivers championship only to his teammate. Albon was given a seat once again by ART in 2017 to race in the FIA Formula 2 Championship where he finished his maiden year in 10th position. After making his 2019 Formula One début with Toro Rosso alongside experienced Russian Daniil Kvyat, Albon replaced Pierre Gasly at Red Bull Racing with Gasly taking Albon's place at Toro Rosso effective from the 2019 Belgian Grand Prix.
Personal life
Albon was born at the Portland Hospital in London, England on 23 March 1996. His father, Nigel Albon is a former British racing driver who participated in the British Touring Car Championship and Porsche Carrera Cup. His mother, Kankamol, is from Thailand whose prior criminal conduct was the subject of media coverage at the time of Albon's Formula One debut.Growing up in Bures, Suffolk alongside a younger brother and three sisters, Albon attended the Ipswich School before leaving to pursue his professional racing career,citing Michael Schumacher and Valentino Rossi as being inspirational figures when he was younger. Albon holds dual British and Thai nationality, but races under the Thai flag. Albon is known to practice Buddhism and currently resides in Milton Keynes in close proximity to Red Bull Racing's headquarters.
Early career
Karting
Albon started competitively racing karts in 2005 at the age of 8, competing locally and winning his local Hoddesdon Championship. In 2006 Albon started racing in the cadet class, finishing 1st at the Kartmasters British Grand Prix and participating in the Super 1 National Honda Cadet Championship finishing 1st in 2006 and 2nd in 2007. In 2008 he moved up to the KF3 class where he stayed until 2010. During this time Albon won the Kartmasters British Grand Prix, Formula Kart Stars Championship, KF Winter Series, Super 1 National KF3 Championship, CIK-FIA World Cup and CIK-FIA European Championship.In 2011 Albon graduated to KF1 placing 2nd in the WSK Euro Series and 2nd at the CIK-FIA World Championship.
Formula Renault 2.0
EPIC Racing (2012)
From karting Albon graduated to the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup series where he drove for EPIC Racing in 2012 alongside Kevin Giovesi, Konstantin Tereschenko, Kevin Jörg, Dennis Wusthoff and Christof von Grunigen and finished 38th out of 49 in the championship after having a tough year and being unable to score points.KTR (2013–2014)
In 2013 Albon joined KTR to race in the 2013 Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 season alongside Yu Kanamaru and Ignazio D'Agosto finishing 16th out of 36 in the championship. Albon managed to secure one fastest lap and one pole position in the 2013 season, both of them coming at the Red Bull Ring in Austria. He finished the 2013 season with 22 points. In 2014 Albon raced alongside Gregor Ramsay, Jules Gounon and Callan O'Keefe and enjoyed a much more successful year. He was once again unable to find a win at any of the 14 races but managed to get one pole position at the Nürburgring and finished 3rd in the drivers championship with 117 points.European Formula 3
In 2015, Albon switched to European Formula 3, racing at Signature with teammate Dorian Boccolacci. He finished seventh overall, with two pole positions, 5 podiums and 187 points overall.GP3 Series
In December 2015, Albon partook in post season testing with ART Grand Prix. In 2016, Albon raced for ART in the GP3. Albon claimed four wins and finished as runner up in the championship to teammate Charles Leclerc.Formula 2 Championship
ART Grand Prix (2017)
In 2017, Albon graduated to the FIA Formula 2 Championship, with ART. His teammate for the season would be Nobuharu Matsushita, who at the time was also signed as a development driver for McLaren.He made his debut in Bahrain, where he started in 9th place on the starting grid for the feature race and finished 6th. For the sprint race Albon qualified 3rd on the grid, behind Luca Ghiotto and his teammate,
Matsushita. However, mechanical problems forced Matsushita to start from the pitlane promoting Albon to second. Albon struggled for grip for the majority of the race and finished in 7th position.
At the Spanish round Albon placed 3rd on the provisional starting grid for the feature race. Charles Leclerc led into turn one, but found himself under fire from Ghiotto and Albon after locking up. Leclerc began to pull away from Ghiotto, who began to fall into the clutches of Albon, who subsequently made a move into turn one and took second place from
Ghiotto. Leclerc pitted on lap seven, along with Matsushita, leaving Albon with the lead of the race. Sergio Canamasas ground to a halt on lap 10 owing to problems with the car. Despite this, he did not pull off the track to retire – instead remaining on the track and gesturing to the marshals asking for a push-start. The dangerous position of the car initially brought out the virtual safety car and eventually, the safety car itself. As the race resumed, Leclerc and Ghiotto began to scythe through the pack. Oliver Rowland eventually pressured Albon into a mistake to take the lead of the race, although both still had an impending pitstop to make. With the fresh rubber, Albon and Rowland were staging a comeback with both drivers challenging for the podium toward the latter stages of the race, Albon later finished the race in 5th position. In the sprint race, Albon started 4th on the grid and enjoyed a well fought battle with Leclerc for the majority of the race and after battling for a number of laps, Leclerc finally passed Albon for fifth place. Later in the race however Albon dropped back, finishing the race in 8th position.
At the Monaco round, Albon qualified second on the grid with a time of 1:19.321 seconds. In qualifying, the grid was separated into two Groups due to safety concerns over the short and tight nature of the circuit. Albon was part of the 'Group B' qualifying and managed to gain the fastest time in that group, only qualifying 12 hundredths of a second behind Leclerc who qualified in Group A. After an aborted start due to Antonio Fuoco and Sean Gelael's engines stalling on the grid, Leclerc led into the first corner, followed by Albon. A concertina effect occurred at the Grand Hotel Hairpin as Canamasas was spun, causing Gelael to lose his front wing and bringing out a local yellow. Later in the race, Albon found himself stuck behind the slower moving Norman Nato and Jordan King, which eventually caused him to lose places, finishing the race in a disappointing 4th position. In the Sprint Race, Albon started 5th on the grid, and after a very tight race he dropped back to finish in 6th position.
Albon missed the Baku round of the Championship due to injury. Albon had sustained a broken collarbone whilst out on a mountain biking training ride, and was unable to compete due to the over-the-shoulder seat belts used in Formula 2.
Albon was back in action for the fifth round of the championship, stating that his initial feeling on returning to action after breaking his collarbone was "a lot better" than he expected. He confirmed that the bone was still "clearly broken" following an x-ray on the Tuesday before the race weekend, and explained that the main issue he is having in the car is a "numb feeling" from the scar he received during successful surgery after the crash. Albon finished the practice session in 8th, which showed that despite the injury, the chance for his first podium in Formula 2 was a possibility. Albon qualified in 4th for the Feature Race, however was later promoted to third on the provisional starting grid after Sérgio Sette Câmara was disqualified after the qualifying session after failing to provide the required 1 litre fuel sample. Albon finished the Feature Race in 5th position, after losing places to Oliver Rowland and Nicholas Latifi whose car proved to have a lot of pace. For the Sprint Race, Albon started the race 4th on the grid and managed to move up the grid to clinch his first podium in Formula 2, finishing behind Artem Markelov. He would later score another podium at the sprint race at the season finale in Abu Dhabi, finishing in second after being overtaken by Leclerc on the final lap. He finished 10th in the drivers' championship in his first F2 season, scoring 86 points.
DAMS (2018)
In April 2018, DAMS announced that they signed Albon for the 2018 season to partner Nicholas Latifi. While initially only confirmed for the opening round, he was later confirmed as full time driver for the team the following month. He started the season with a fourth place in the feature race in Bahrain before finishing thirteenth in the sprint race.For the next round in Baku, Albon started from pole for the feature race and followed it up with his first win in F2, while in the sprint race he finished thirteenth again.
At the next two rounds in Barcelona and Monaco, Albon took two more pole positions but finished fifth in the feature race in Spain after getting away slowly while in the sprint he finished second behind Jack Aitken. In Monaco, however, it was a weekend to forget for the Thai driver, as in the feature race, he collided with Nyck de Vries as he was entering the pitlane, spinning him around in the pitlane entrance, while in the sprint race he collided with Campos' Roy Nissany approaching the Nouvelle Chicane.
Another retirement would follow in the feature race at Le Castellet after he suffered an engine failure. In the sprint race, he finished seventh, one place ahead of Latifi.
After finishing fifth in both races at the Red Bull Ring, Albon won the feature race at Silverstone, before collecting two more wins at the sprint race at the Hungaroring, and the feature race at Sochi. A stall on the grid in the feature race at Abu Dhabi ended his title chances; he finished fourteenth in the feature race and eighth in the sprint race, leaving him third in the drivers' championship behind fellow future F1 drivers George Russell and Lando Norris.
Formula E
Albon was signed by Nissan e.dams alongside Sébastien Buemi as one of its drivers for the 2018–19 Formula E season, but he was released before the start of the season to instead drive in the 2019 Formula One season for Toro Rosso.His place was taken by former F2 colleague Oliver Rowland, who previously competed in the 2015 Punta del Este ePrix as an injury replacement for Mahindra Racing's Nick Heidfeld.
Formula One career
Toro Rosso (First half of 2019)
On 26 November 2018, it was confirmed that Albon had been released from his Nissan e.dams Formula E contract after rumours he was to sign for Toro Rosso. On the same day, Toro Rosso announced Albon would join the team for alongside Daniil Kvyat and thus Albon's relationship with the Red Bull Junior Team was restored. He is the second Thai driver to compete in Formula One, the first since Prince Bira competed in the 1954 season.At the Bahrain Grand Prix, the second race of Albon's Formula One career, he finished 9th to score his first points. At the following race in China, Albon started from the pit lane after a heavy crash in Free Practice 3 and being unable to compete in qualifying. Albon finished 10th and won the 'Driver Of The Day' award. Another points finish came with an 8th-place finish in Monaco. After a retirement at the 2019 Canadian Grand Prix and three consecutive finishes outside of the points, Albon produced a strong drive to finish in 6th place at the chaotic rain-affected 2019 German Grand Prix, however he was bested by Kvyat, who scored Toro Rosso's second ever podium in their Formula One history. In the following Hungarian Grand Prix, Albon finished 10th, after notably having a fierce battle with his teammate Daniil Kvyat during the race.
Red Bull (Second half of 2019–present)
2019
On 12 August 2019, Red Bull announced that Albon would be replacing Pierre Gasly at the team from the Belgian Grand Prix onwards, with Gasly returning to Toro Rosso. The change came after Gasly had struggled with Red Bull Racing RB15, having failed to keep on the same pace of now-former teammate Max Verstappen. Upon the shock mid-season announcement, the team at Red Bull said in a press release, ”The team will use the next nine races to evaluate Alex’s performance in order to make an informed decision as to who will drive alongside Max in 2020.” On the dropping of Gasly, Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner said: "Pierre really needs to take some time out during the break, reflect, and take the lessons into the second part of the year. We desperately need him realising more of the potential of the car."At his first race with Red Bull at the Belgian Grand Prix, Albon was forced to start from 17th on the grid due to a power unit change. However, he produced a fine drive and after passing Sergio Pérez on the final lap Albon crossed the line in 5th place. A pair of 6th-place finishes followed in Italy and Singapore. After a crash in qualifying in Russia resulting in a pit lane start Albon came through the field to claim another 5th place. Albon and Verstappen set identical lap times in qualifying at the Japanese Grand Prix, and Albon finished a career-best 4th in the race. He finished 5th at both the Mexican and United States rounds and looked set for a 2nd-place finish in Brazil before a botched overtaking move by Lewis Hamilton scuttled his chances. Albon finished the race in 14th, ending a nine point-scoring streak. Hamilton later received a penalty for causing the collision. At the final race in Abu Dhabi, Albon was a contender to finish 6th in the standings, but by finishing 6th in the race, he was unable to outscore Carlos Sainz Jr. and Pierre Gasly and finished his debut season in Formula One 8th in the standings with 92 points.
2020
Albon continued racing for Red Bull alongside Verstappen during the 2020 season. At the opening race in Austria, Albon started in fourth place and spent much of the race in third after teammate Verstappen retired. Whilst attempting to overtake Lewis Hamilton for second place, the two cars collided, sending Albon into the gravel, an incident for which Hamilton received a penalty. Albon was able to continue but later retired from the race with an electrical failure likely caused by the clash. Albon had an unspectacular weekend at the next race of the season, the Styrian Grand Prix. He qualified 5th in the wet, three places behind team mate Max Verstappen. In the race, Albon lacked pace compared to his teammate, finishing over 10 seconds behind despite making one less stop than the Dutch driver. At one stage he was coming under pressure from Sergio Pérez in his Racing Point RP20, before the Mexican fell back with front wing damage after contact with Albon following a failed overtake attempt, leaving Albon to finish 4th. Red Bull said they are unsure why Albon lacked pace in the race.Racing record
Career summary
Complete FIA Formula 3 European Championship results
| Year | Entrant | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | DC | Points |
| 2015 | Signature | Volkswagen | SIL 1 4 | SIL 2 6 | SIL 3 6 | HOC 1 13 | HOC 2 8 | HOC 3 9 | PAU 1 5 | PAU 2 7 | PAU 3 NC | MNZ 1 21 | MNZ 2 WD | MNZ 3 WD | SPA 1 3 | SPA 2 16 | SPA 3 9 | NOR 1 5 | NOR 2 2 | NOR 3 3 | ZAN 1 7 | ZAN 2 4 | ZAN 3 8 | RBR 1 7 | RBR 2 5 | RBR 3 8 | ALG 1 2 | ALG 2 12 | ALG 3 Ret | NÜR 1 12 | NÜR 2 14 | NÜR 3 11 | HOC 1 11 | HOC 2 Ret | HOC 3 2 | 7th | 187 |
Complete GP3 Series results
| Year | Entrant | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | Pos | Points |
| 2016 | ART Grand Prix | CAT FEA 6 | CAT SPR 1 | RBR FEA 2 | RBR SPR 2 | SIL FEA 1 | SIL SPR 14 | HUN FEA 7 | HUN SPR 1 | HOC FEA 4 | HOC SPR Ret | SPA FEA 9 | SPA SPR 10 | MNZ FEA 6 | MNZ SPR 2 | SEP FEA 1 | SEP SPR 8 | YMC FEA Ret | YMC FEA Ret | 2nd | 177 |
Complete FIA Formula 2 Championship results
| Year | Entrant | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | DC | Points |
| ART Grand Prix | BHR FEA 6 | BHR SPR 7 | CAT FEA 5 | CAT SPR 8 | MON FEA 4 | MON SPR 6 | BAK FEA | BAK SPR | RBR FEA 5 | RBR SPR 2 | SIL FEA 18 | SIL SPR 10 | HUN FEA 8 | HUN SPR 7 | SPA FEA 12 | SPA SPR 18 | MNZ FEA 14 | MNZ SPR 8 | JER FEA 12 | JER SPR 9 | YMC FEA 7 | YMC SPR 2 | 10th | 86 | |||
| DAMS | BHR FEA 4 | BHR SPR 13 | BAK FEA 1 | BAK SPR 13 | CAT FEA 5 | CAT SPR 2 | MON FEA Ret | MON SPR Ret | LEC FEA Ret | LEC SPR 7 | RBR FEA 5 | RBR SPR 5 | SIL FEA 1 | SIL SPR 7 | HUN FEA 5 | HUN SPR 1 | SPA FEA 5 | SPA SPR 3 | MNZ FEA 3 | MNZ SPR Ret | SOC FEA 1 | SOC SPR 3 | YMC FEA 14 | YMC SPR 8 | 3rd | 212 |
Complete Formula One results
| Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | Points | |
| Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda | Scuderia Toro Rosso STR14 | Honda RA619H 1.6 V6 t | AUS 14 | BHR 9 | CHN 10 | AZE 11 | ESP 11 | MON 8 | CAN Ret | FRA 15 | AUT 15 | GBR 12 | GER 6 | HUN 10 | 8th | 92 | ||||||||||
| Aston Martin Red Bull Racing | Red Bull Racing RB15 | Honda RA619H 1.6 V6 t | BEL 5 | ITA 6 | SIN 6 | RUS 5 | JPN 4 | MEX 5 | USA 5 | BRA 14 | ABU 6 | 8th | 92 | |||||||||||||
| Aston Martin Red Bull Racing | Red Bull Racing RB16 | Honda RA620H 1.6 V6 t | AUT 13 | STY 4 | HUN 5 | GBR | 70A | ESP | BEL | ITA | TUS | RUS | EIF | POR | EMI | 5th* | 22* |
Did not finish, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance.