Alexander Albon calm over 2020 seat despite Red Bull penalties

Alexander Albon

Albon calm over 2020 seat despite Red Bull penalties

Another grid drop looms in Russia this week.

Matthew Scott

Thursday 26 September 2019 17:00

Alexander Albon says he has not been handed specific targets by Red Bull as he aims to secure the seat alongside Max Verstappen for 2020.

Red Bull chief Dr Helmut Marko confirmed in Singapore that the team's choice would come down to Albon or Pierre Gasly, who lost his seat in the summer break to facilitate the Thai driver's promotion just 12 races into his Formula 1 career.

Marko also suggested that the decision over the 2020 line-up will be made after the Mexican Grand Prix, scene of a Verstappen victory in each of the last two years.

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Albon has scored two sixth-place finishes after a fifth on debut for Red Bull in Belgium, but does not necessarily need an uptick in results to keep his spot.

"In the end, there's no targets for me right now," he added. "It's just doing the races. There's quite a few races to go, so they haven't been pushing me in any sense like that.

"Red Bull will know what they see and just because we are taking a lot of penalties they are not going to ignore [me]. From my side it's still just doing my job.

"They'll know if it's a good job or not, they have enough data and globally to see how it's been doing. I don't see it as frustrating at all."

With their respective performances in Belgium and Italy obscured by grid penalties, and Verstappen crashing on lap one at Spa-Francorchamps, Albon's first real comparison to the Dutchman came in Singapore last week.

Verstappen qualified two places ahead and six tenths of a second quicker and was on the podium post-race, although Albon believes their performances were not that far apart.

He said: "I wouldn't say it's one specific thing.

"Clearly he knows the car, he's confident with the car and he's quick. It's not like he's always quicker than me here or here, it's normally just bits and pieces everywhere."