Breaking news

Formula 1

Red Bull keeps Albon for 2020, Toro Rosso drivers stay

The Red Bull Formula 1 team has confirmed Alexander Albon will continue alongside Max Verstappen in its line-up for the 2020 Formula 1 season.

Valentin Khorounzhiy

Edited: Nov 12, 2019, 4:08 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Alex Albon, Red Bull Racing

Albon, who has made F1 debut this season after graduating from Formula 2, was promoted from Red Bull's junior team Toro Rosso to its main F1 outfit ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix.

The Anglo-Thai racer replaced Pierre Gasly, who had been struggling as Verstappen's teammate in the early stages of the season, and has now successfully convinced the energy drink to make the switch permanent for next year.

"I am really excited to be partnering Max again for next year and I know how fortunate I am to be given this opportunity," Albon said. "I’m hugely thankful that Red Bull have put their trust in me and believed in my results since I joined the team and for them to keep me in the car next year is a big deal.

"This year has been an incredible year for me and getting the call up to Red Bull mid-season was already a big step, so now I will use the learnings from this season and use the experience to improve and fight at the front in 2020."

Read Also:

Albon has had several crashes since joining Red Bull, and like Gasly has struggled to match the team's benchmark Verstappen over one lap.

However, he has proven an upgrade on Gasly in race trim, delivering a run of four consecutive top-five finishes and outscoring Verstappen 68 points to 54 in their seven races as teammates thus far.

"Alex has performed extremely well since his debut with the team in Belgium and his results – seven finishes in the top-six – speak for themselves," said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner.

"It’s extremely hard to deny that level of consistency and in tandem with a growing reputation as a tenacious, fiercely committed racer, Alex has proved that he fully deserves to continue his progress with Aston Martin Red Bull Racing.

"There is plenty of potential still to unlock and we look forward to seeing Alex alongside Max in 2020."

Red Bull has repeatedly made it clear that it will look to keep the same roster of drivers across its two F1 teams in 2020.

Read Also:

Toro Rosso retains Gasly, Kvyat

Toro Rosso announced soon afterwards that both Gasly and Daniil Kvyat will remain at the team in 2020 in an unchanged line-up.

"I’m delighted to retain Pierre and Daniil for next season," said team boss Franz Tost.

"Both drivers have shown really good performances this season and they have proven in their years in F1 to be very competitive, able to exploit the car’s potential and give valuable feedback to make improvements.

"This young but experienced duo, combined with hopefully a competitive car, will be the best factors to achieve a very successful season in 2020 and I'm looking forward to this extended cooperation."

The only seat left unfilled on the 2020 F1 grid is thus at Williams, where F2 graduate Nicholas Latifi has been tipped to partner incumbent George Russell.

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Mercedes likely to stay in F1 after 2021, but "not a given"

Next article Leclerc to take Brazil grid penalty for new Ferrari engine

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

NASCAR explains why they penalized Zane Smith after latest clash with Carson Hocevar

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Phoenix II

7 h

NASCAR explains why they penalized Zane Smith after latest clash with Carson Hocevar

Porsche boss Laudenbach says he is "not happy" with how things were handled by IMSA in 2026

IMSA

IMSA IMSA 8 h

Porsche boss Laudenbach says he is "not happy" with how things were handled by IMSA in 2026

Five things to watch out for at the F1 United States GP

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

8 h

Five things to watch out for at the F1 United States GP

KTM sees MotoGP 2027 as a fresh start: “We never had the chance to build a new bike”

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP 9 h

KTM sees MotoGP 2027 as a fresh start: “We never had the chance to build a new bike”

Feature

Discover prime content

How Kimi Antonelli levelled up his character to be F1 2026's world champion-elect

Formula 1

United States GP

By Filip Cleeren

How Kimi Antonelli levelled up his character to be F1 2026's world champion-elect

Why Oscar Piastri has struggled to show his best with this year's McLaren MCL40

Formula 1

By Jake Boxall-Legge

Why Oscar Piastri has struggled to show his best with this year's McLaren MCL40

How levelling the playing field isn’t antithetical to the principles of F1

Formula 1

By Pat Symonds

How levelling the playing field isn’t antithetical to the principles of F1

Lights, Camara, action: How Haas picked F1's latest rookie for 2027

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

Lights, Camara, action: How Haas picked F1's latest rookie for 2027

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts