Look at what happened to former teammates of Verstappen

You can now say that the second Formula 1 season in Alexander Albon's career has not turned out how he planned. When he was suddenly promoted to Red Bull Racing in mid-2019, he would have been over the moon. The question is whether this move was the right decision in retrospect.

Although of course, a driver will never say no to such an opportunity, according to Jolyon Palmer it may not have been Red Bull's best decision to give him one. "When Albon was moved up, he looked a promising rookie alongside Daniil Kvyat in the second team - then known as Toro Rosso - but didn't really have the results to justify a move to one of F1's most competitive teams," the analyst and former F1-driver said in his column for the BBC.

Red Bull Racing is back to square one with Albon

Albon started off energetically at first and showed in the second half of 2019 that he was cut from the right racing wood. The gap to Verstappen was still there, but the hope was this would decrease in 2020. That did not happen and now Albon is in the same situation as Gasly a year earlier. According to Palmer, that does not mean that the Thai is not good enough for F1.

"It's very tough for Albon, who is pitched against one of Formula 1's outright fastest drivers - possibly the fastest over one lap. Just look at how Verstappen has compared when partnered with Pierre Gasly, who is rejuvenated following his demotion to Alpha Tauri, and Ricciardo, who has also come alive once more at Renault."