Red Bull hopes to confirm Alex Albon will return to Formula 1 in 2022 in the coming week.
The London-born Thai driver has spent this season on the sidelines as reserve driver and competing in DTM after being replaced by Sergio Perez at the end of last year.
However, in recent days, speculation has grown linking Albon first to George Russell’s seat at Williams and also now to Alfa Romeo, where he’d likely partner Valtteri Bottas.
“I think Alex deserves a seat in Formula 1 and I think there’s quite a bit of interest in him for next year,” Red Bull boss Christian Horner told the media at the Dutch Grand Prix on Friday.
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“We’ll do whatever we can to try and enable that. I hope that nothing prevents him from realising one of those opportunities.
“He’s a talented driver and is subject to George moving, and now Kimi [Raikkonen] is retiring, that does open up opportunities. I’m sure it will get resolved over the next week or so.
“We are looking at external teams. Williams and Alfa Romeo have both expressed interest and we’re keen to see him back racing in Formula 1.”
A hurdle to Albon joining Williams could be Red Bull’s main rival Mercedes, who supply the Grove-based team with engines and gearboxes and, according to Horner, have been in contact with Alex, trying to persuade him to join Alfa Romeo.
“I really hope that Mercedes don’t block his opportunity at Williams, that would be a great, great shame,” the Red Bull boss told Sky Sports.
“It would be a great shame if a driver were to pay the penalty for his linkage to Red Bull.
“Hopefully that won’t come into play but there are opportunities at a couple of teams and our priority is to see him racing next year.
“If he can’t do that, we’ll keep him in a test and reserve role because we rate him extremely highly.”
Mercedes is also trying to get Formula E champion Nyck de Vries onto the F1 grid for 2022, likely in the seat Albon doesn’t take.
Meanwhile, Alfa Romeo’s current second driver, Antonio Giovinazzi, wasn’t exactly optimistic about his future at the team.
“It’s clear – to convince Fred (Vasseur, team principal) I need to still go faster, bring home some good results. Then it’s Fred’s decision.
“We’ll see, but for sure my priority is to be here next year and I would like to be with Alfa Romeo.”