Alexander
Albon
Thailand
·
F1
Date of birth | March 23, 1996 |
|---|---|
Birthplace | London, UK |
Age | 30 |
Nationality | Thailand |
Career start | 2005 |
Disciplines | F1 |
Born and raised in the UK, and having grown up with a former British racing driver for a dad (Nigel Albon), nonetheless Alexander Albon in 2019 becomes only the second racer to represent Thailand on the F1 grid (after Prince Birabongse Bhanudej Bhanubandh, or ‘B Bira’, in the 1950s).
That’s due to Alexander’s Thai mother and if we’re overlooking B Bira then Alexander Albon will be the first F1 driver to race under the Thai flag in the modern era.
He’ll be lining up on the grid for Torro Rosso in 2019 alongside former Red Bull Junior teammate Daniil Kvyat, who Albon raced against in the 2012 Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 series (Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz also featured in that series).
Albon began his racing career in karting at the age of just eight, winning his first local title in 2005 and going on to forge a very successful career in the sport, including World and European titles in 2010.
From there he upgraded to single-seater racing in in Formula Renault 2.0 and European Formula 3, before announcing himself in GP3 in 2016, and following that it was on to Formula 2.
After a 10th placed finish overall in 2017’s inaugural Formula 2 campaign Albon stepped it up in 2018 and was in contention for the overall title ahead of the final race of the year in Abu Dhabi.
He ended up in third place overall behind fellow 2019 F1 rookies George Russell (Williams in 2019) and Lando Norris (McLaren in 2019) and the trio will do battle once more as for the first time since 2010 the top-three in F2 have graduated straight to F1.