Red Bull boss Christian Horner has praised the continued progress of Alex Albon, suggesting the 2020 seat is now “his to lose”.
The British-Thai driver enjoyed his best weekend with the team so far in Japan, starting sixth and finishing fourth, his highest place so far and also maintaining his 100% top-six finish run since joining Red Bull.
More impressive though was his pace in qualifying which certainly caught the attention of everyone.
“First of all I think Alex did an amazing job to match Max [Verstappen]’s time [in qualifying], it was his first time here at Suzuka, a really tricky, drivers circuit,” Horner told Channel 4.
“He’s certainly making a really good play for it. It’s his seat to lose in many respects and I think everything he’s done so far he’s done a super job.”
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Previously, it has been suggested Red Bull will make their 2020 decision around the upcoming Mexican and United States GP’s but Horner appeared to throw cold water on a short-term announcement.
“We’ve still got plenty of time,” he noted. “All the drivers are under contract, we don’t need to rush, but I’m very pleased with what he’s done so far.
“He drove a good race. He had a bad start, but then recovered well and passed Lando [Norris], caught Carlos [Sainz], passed him on the lap that Carlos pitted on, and then he made the two-stop strategy work.
“Unfortunately he had lost touch with the leaders and it was quite a lonely P4 at that point.”
Through a combination of Albon’s consistency and Verstappen’s two retirements since Spa, Alex has actually outscored the Dutchman by 48 points to 31 in their five races as teammates so far.