Alexander Albon relays of what happened during the Formula E and F1 scene when his F2 stint ended before his Formula 1 debut.
Before Albon made his F1 debut with Toro Rosso, he had his move to Formula E done and dusted with Nissan. When things started to look bleak on the step up to pinnacle of motor racing, the Thai racer decided to switch to electric racing post his F2 career.
He was gearing up for his Formula E debut season when the call to F1 came via Marko. They decided to not renew with Brendon Hartley, as Pierre Gasly was called up to the senior Red Bull drive. This left an open space at Toro Rosso for Albon to step in.
It was all last minute as Albon had to step out from his Nissan’s contract where the clause was put in about a F1 drive. “Formula E is the next best thing career-wise to do outside of Formula 1,” said Albon to High Performance Podcast. “I got approached to do Formula E and I thought, ‘Amazing, that’s great’.
“I actually called Helmut Marko, who’s the boss of the Red Bull junior programme, before I signed the contract, just to say, ‘Just out of any chance, is there a seat going in F1 before I sign this Formula E contract?’ and he told me, ‘No. Our seats are full, there’s no chance’.
“I think at that point I was disappointed. I did go around more than just Red Bull, I did give it every chance I had to see if there was a spot in Formula 1, but I knew there wasn’t, so I thought, ‘Okay, Formula E it is’. And my mindset was there. I signed that Formula E contract maybe three, four months before the final race of the season in Formula 2, and then it came to the last race of the year and Helmut Marko got me back again.
“He enquired about my ‘simulator services’ – that’s what he said. He got his PA to come over and speak to me and say, ‘Do you mind just popping into Helmut’s office at the circuit?’. We had a chat about simulator work. I was actually at the simulator at Mercedes doing work for them, he wanted to know how much I got paid at Mercedes.
“I gave him a big number! And then he said, ‘Okay, can I see it then?’ I thought, ‘Great, he’s agreed to my terms on my simulator contract!’” the 27-year-old recalled. “I don’t know what it is, I think it’s just something he does occasionally, [but] he was speaking about this contract the whole time, [and] as I was walking out the door, he was like, ‘By the way, what’s your position with your Formula E contract? Can you get out?’
“And the one thing I did make sure with my Formula E contract was to have a clause in it that, if I had a Formula 1 offer, I was good to go. I said, ‘That’s the way it is’, and he said, ‘Okay, let me get back to you’. And then within 24 hours it was almost pretty much all done. He called me literally in 24 hours time saying, ‘Okay, yep, good to go. We’re going to make your press announcement in about an hour’, and I was a Formula 1 driver.
“Maybe you see it with me, I was not the most confident person going through. I needed this kind of feeling, like I didn’t feel I was quite there yet, and had these stumbles along the way. So when this Formula 1 opportunity came about, I thought, ‘Am I ready now?’,” summed up Albon.
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