Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has admitted Alex Albon is the likely favourite to race alongside Max Verstappen next year.
The Thai driver has enjoyed two top-six finishes since stepping up to the senior team at Spa and was a very respectable 0.6s behind the Dutchman in Singapore GP qualifying on his first trip to Marina Bay.
Speaking earlier in the weekend, Marko rather let the cat out of the bag by revealing Red Bull’s current plans, including that Daniil Kvyat won’t be in the frame for promotion.
“We will make our evaluation after Mexico,” he told Sky Sports. “Also Kvyat is confirmed for next year already, or at least internally it’s clear. Then it’s between [Pierre] Gasly and Albon.”
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Certainly his comments were a lot more detailed than Red Bull boss Christian Horner when asked how the team is approaching their 2020 decision.
“We don’t need to be in any rush. All the drivers that are under consideration are under contract, so we’re in a unique position where we don’t need to rush anything,” he told Crash.net.
“We’ll take the fullness of time to look and evaluate the progress of Alex, and measure it against Dany and Pierre.”
The Briton though did acknowledge Albon has been living upto expectations.
“I think he’s done a very good job. Obviously [it was] short notice when he got into the car but his drives in both Spa – particularly Spa in his first race, the recovery that he made to P5 was really impressive,” he stated. “He had a strong weekend in Monza as well.
“So everything that he’s done so far, I have to say, the whole team’s been very impressed with.”
As a result, Marko again went further confirming Albon as the current lead candidate.
“We told each other that we would like to wait a little longer, but based on what we have seen so far: Yes,” he was quoted by PlanetF1.
“I think he [Max] needs a teammate who is very close to him and I think we found it with Albon. He is doing very well so far and is steadily improving.
“You must not forget that he has never been here before and he is by far the fastest rookie on this track so far.
“But it is also important for the team that we have a strong team-mate alongside Verstappen, with a view to the championship.”