Formula 1 - So Albers Is Out, Who Will Be In?

July 11th, 2007

Formula 1 - So Albers Is Out, Who Will Be In?

Sacking of Christijan Albers did not come as a surprise. The fact that he was regularly outpaced by his rookie team mate triggered lots of speculation about his future. His refueling hose stunt in Magny Cours did not help him much within the team. All that seemed to keep him his seat was money he brought to the team either.

So once the news about problems with payments from one his sponsors had came out (Mingya allegedly), the question was not “if” but “when”. “When” was yesterday and now the question is, who will get his seat.On top my list would be Giedo van der Garde. He is Dutch, that is always an advantge in a Dutch team. He also has some money behind him. If the money is enough to meet the team’s needs, he will probably get the seat. Disadvantage for him the lack of experience in F1 car.

Narain Karthikeyan would be my number 2. He is not going to get anywhere near the race seat in Williams and there seems to be no other option for him left open. If he wants to race in F1 again, this is his chance. He will need to get over all the problems he faced towards the end of his Jordan/Midland carreer, quite few people, including Mr. Kolles, are still in Spyker … Then he has to hope he can offer Spyker more money than what van der Garde can bring. From racing point of view he would probably be better choice than van der Garde due to his Jordan racing and Williams testing experience.

Christian Klien would be my number 3 candidate. He would be the best pick in terms of racing experience. But I still can’t see where the money would be coming from? Spyker is on lookout for pay driver and Klien does not seem to be part of that group.

The other names that have been mentioned are Winkelhock - not too sure about him as a choice, and Verstappen - that would be funny but I do not thing that it is going to happen.