Doornbos fears for Albon: "The engineers won't take you seriously then"

"The performance of Max is very good, because the Red Bull is a tricky car to drive and balance at the limit", writes Doornbos in his column for TopGear. Moreover, Verstappen only stands for improving the RB16. "At the moment Verstappen has nothing to do with Albon. He doesn't get any strategic backing and with this pace Albon can't help with the development of the car".

The F1 analyst even states that Albon's credibility is at stake with the Austrian formation. "He's seven tenths short in qualifying. Then you can shout what you want about the car, but the engineers won't take it seriously then. On top of that Max Verstappen is just extremely good, which makes it a tough period for Albon's career. Right now Red Bull is just a one man show," he explains.

Doornbos expects that Verstappen would make Hamilton very difficult in a Mercedes. "He would be at least as dominant, and maybe even better," says the former driver. He also expects that Mercedes, with its very dominant car in 2020 and 2021, will soon be able to shift the focus to 2022 when the new regulations enter the royal class of motor racing.