Christian Horner has warned that Alex Albon will face a "year on the bench" should he lose his Red Bull seat.

While Red Bull bosses are hoping to leave a decision on who will partner Max Verstappen next season as late as possible, the fact is that Albon must raise his game.

Over the Bahrain weekend the Dutchman was quite vocal in his comments about needing support from a teammate and while Albon finished on the podium this was more about Sergio Perez' late demise.

Should the Austrian team opt to recruit Perez, Horner warns that Albon cannot expect to spend a season back at AlphaTauri like some of his predecessors as that particular seat appears to be reserved for Yuki Tsunoda.

"I don't believe he forms part of Franz ' plans for next year," Horner told reporters, "so it's very much a Red Bull seat or a year on the bench.

"The focus is on giving him that opportunity," he continued, "he's got two races. He did a good job last weekend being on the podium, his second in F1, he's had a good start to the weekend here.

"He has two more weekends to demonstrate he is absolutely the right guy to be in that car alongside Max next year," he added. "We're giving him all the support we possibly can to achieve that goal."

Tost has made no secret of his desire to run Tsunoda, the only being the possibility that he fails to secure his superlicence.

Currently fourth in the standings, the Japanese youngster today grabbed pole for the feature race.

Check out our Friday gallery from Bahrain, here.