14/11/2020
NEWS STORY
During yesterday's second practice session, rather than following Valtteri Bottas' example of eating porridge, it appeared that Alex Albon had eaten three... possibly four, maybe even five Weetabix.
Time and time again he went quickest, ahead of his teammate, Hamilton, Bottas and Leclerc, and though he ended the session fifth, the youngster really did appear fired up.
Hopefully this can translate into a decent qualifying performance today, for it is in qualifying that Albon is weak, thereby making things so much harder for himself on Sunday afternoons.
Christian Horner and (surprisingly) Helmut Marko continue to keep faith with the youngster, and hope that he comes good, and as the Austrian outfit looks ahead to 2021, the state of the driver market allows some much needed breathing space when it comes to making a decision on its line-up.
While the world and his dog waits on Lewis Hamilton putting pen to paper, the only other available seats are those at Haas, one at AlphaTauri and, of course, the seat alongside Max Verstappen.
Other than Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg, other drivers linked with the various seats include Mick Schumacher (Haas), Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) and Nikita Mazepin (Haas).
"We're not putting any particular timescale on it," says Horner. "Alex's contract allows us to make that decision after the season.
"As I've said all along, we want to see Alex lay claim to that seat," he added. "I think the difference is that with the alternatives we have, all the seats are full in Formula 1. So that buys us a little bit of time to make the most informed decision that we can, and of course give Alex as much time as we can and as much support as we can, and see what happens over the remaining three or four races.
"Obviously we're aware of what the other options are," he added. "As I say, all the other seats are committed now in Formula 1, apart from Mercedes, and I doubt that Lewis will be joining us next season. But you never know.
"Looking at today, he's had a pretty decent day, probably his best Friday for quite a while," he admitted.
Check out our Saturday gallery from Istanbul, here.