VIDEO: How Albon learned of Red Bull promotion

Alexander Albon admits that he was “shocked” when he was called into the office of Helmut Marko to be informed that he would be being promoted to Red Bull from Toro Rosso.

During the summer break, it was confirmed that he would replace Pierre Gasly, who had a torrid first half of the season after making the opposition move from Toro Rosso ahead of 2019.

Albon may be surprised at the recent developments, but it hasn’t made him any less eager to get behind the wheel of a Red Bull again.

“There is obviously a lot of excitement, but I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a bit of nerves in there as well,” the Thai-British driver said in an interview with Red Bull.

“I got called up to Dr Marko’s office [Helmut Marko, Red Bull Motorsport Advisor] in Austria. I thought we were going to be talking about next year and future plans, but after about 30 minutes, he told me the plan and I would be lying if I said it wasn’t a bit of a shock.”

After the meeting with Marko, Albon received a call from his new team principal, Christian Horner, who advised him to switch off his phone to avoid all the immediate attention at the news.

“He congratulated me and we talked about how everything would work. Then he told me to turn off my phone and ignore the external noise, which was good advice,” Albon added.

“I then spoke to my mum to tell her the news. She is very optimistic and always expects things like this to happen.”

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