Red Bull to miss 'invisible star' at France GP
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Sergio Perez recently paid tribute to the work of Alexander Albon in the sim for Red Bull Racing. According to the Mexican, he and Max Verstappen owe a lot to the Thai driver, who had to vacate his seat at Red Bull to Perez last year due to disappointing results.
DTM race in Monza
The sim work for the French Grand Prix will not be done by Albon though, but the honours will be done by Juri Vips. Although Albon had a deal that he could only race in the DTM on weekends when there is no Formula 1, an exception has been made.
This is because the driver who would normally replace Albon in DTM race weekends that coincide with Formula 1, Nick Cassidy, has commitments in Formula E. Helmut Marko let Speedweek.com know that he has given Albon permission to race during the DTM weekend in Monza: "The simulator duties during the weekend of the French GP will be taken over by Juri Vips. However, Alex Albon will remain the reserve driver for both our Formula 1 teams. If one of the regular drivers drops out, Alex will be airlifted directly from Monza to Le Castellet. That way we are still flexible."
Vips
Juri Vips will now do the simulator work. The young Estonian managed to win both the second sprint race and the feature race in F2's most recent weekend in Baku. As there will be no Formula 2 racing at Paul Ricard, Vips was free to fill Albon's spot.