F1 Racing - UK (2020-01)

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

JUL

2019

THEDOOROPENS

AT REDBULL

AsAlbon’srookieseason

went from strengthtostrength,

including eighth in

Monaco,Pierre Gasly’syear w

asin freefall.Suchis the di

fferencein expectations

of drivers between Red Bull’s senior team and its

juniorsquad. A mini-turnaround

beganwhen Red Bull instructed

Gasly’sside ofthe garag

eto work from Verstappen’s

settings, but this was limited

tobetter performances in Austria

andBritain.Gasly

shuntedinpractice in Germany

and collidedpointlessly with Albon

ina rain-hitrace.

While bothparties had a

part to play in that incident,

itwasa misjudgement from

Gaslymorethananything

else. A quality drivefrom Albon,

even thoughToroRosso

team-mate Daniil Kvyat won

plauditsfora podium, rei

nforced his growing stature.

“I’dhad zero experience in

therain,never mindch

anging conditions,” said Albon.

“Theteam was like ‘when do you

want topit?’ and ‘is ittime

fordry tyres?’, andIwas

kindoflike ‘I have no idea! Tell

me everything!’

That race waspartof the imp

ressive jigsaw Albonwas assembling, and it was

well-timed. When Gasly tu

rned in his worstperformance of the season the foll

owing

weekend in Hungary, Red Bull

team boss Christian Horner

andmotorsport advisor

Dr HelmutMarko initiall

ycame out in support, saying their

intention was to keep

him in the car. But one week into F1’s summer break,

thatchanged. Albon would

partner Verstappen for the remainder of

the season, auditioning for the role full-time

for 2020, whileGasly was

toreturn to Toro Rosso.

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