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Albon Confirms Limited Outings With Red Bull in 2021 F1 Season

Published 02/23/2021, 4:15 AM EST

Following a tough 2020 F1 season, Alex Albon will be watching the 2021 season unfold from the Red Bull garage. However, considering he is still the team’s reserve driver, rumors claimed that Albon might get occasional on-track runs during practice sessions.

But that doesn’t seem to be possible, according to Albon. He revealed that he will be sticking with the engineering crew in 2021. Hence, the chances of Albon getting his hands on the RB16-B are bleak at the moment.

Albon’s future in Red Bull

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According to RaceFans, Albon feels that his 2021 season in F1 will be all about learning on a “more in-depth scale.”

“I won’t be in the car as much this year,” he said. “I will be at the track every race so I can at least understand from an engineering side of it, how the team operate on a more in-depth scale.”

By the looks of it, Albon might not be able to return as a full-time Red Bull driver, come 2022. With an in-form Sergio Perez holding onto the seat, Albon’s F1 return hopes rest on the Mexican’s performance over the 2021 season.

If Perez managed to impress Red Bull with some incredible drives, the Austrian outfit wouldn’t waste a second in extending Perez’s contract beyond 2022, leaving Albon’s F1 future in hanging.

However, if things don’t go the way they intended, well, then the Austrian outfit might eye the AlphaTauri pair as potential replacements. This leaves Albon as the prime contender for a full-time drive in the sister Red Bull team.

It is about making the car better: Albon

Albon acknowledged that he was never in the comfort zone while driving the 2020 Red Bull car. Hence, he is focusing on making the 2021 car better and subsequently gaining abundant knowledge as well.

“It wasn’t an easy car, last year,” he said. “And part of me knows for a fact if I could be able to be more comfortable with it, the performance would have been much stronger.

“That’s kind of what I’m doing right now for this RB16B. It is about making the car better. That’s been a lot of the stuff that I’ve been doing over the winter right now.”

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Overall, Albon certainly has a point to prove with respect to Formula 1. His racing colleagues, Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, and George Russell still believe that Albon has a massive point to prove, claiming that he used to be one of the best drivers in other racing series.

Hence, will Albon receive a second chance to rub off his ‘poor driver’ tag? Well, he is still young and aching to make an F1 return. But it all depends on what Red Bull are planning to do with the Thai-British driver.

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Red Bull Prepared to ‘Loan’ Alex Albon to Other F1 Teams in 2021

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Written by:

Rohit Kumar is an F1 author at EssentiallySports. He has been an ardent follower of the racing series since 2007, with his love for the sport coinciding with his love for Kimi Raikkonen. He is also an ardent follower of Sebastian Vettel and Aston Martin Racing.

Albon Confirms Limited Outings With Red Bull in 2021 F1 Season

Albon’s future in Red Bull

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It is about making the car better: Albon