Former Formula 1 team owner Eddie Jordan has urged Red Bull to give Alex Albon a second chance in the event that Sergio Perez isn’t retained beyond the end of 2024.
Albon was promoted to Red Bull in place of Pierre Gasly midway through his rookie F1 campaign in 2019, but he was eventually dropped at the end of the following year.
The Anglo-Thai driver struggled to tame an aerodynamically flawed RB16 car in his only full season with Red Bull and trailed Max Verstappen by 109 points after 17 rounds.
But Albon has rebuilt his reputation since returning to F1 with Williams in 2021, scoring all but one of the side’s 27 points last season as it clinched seventh place in the standings.
Despite remaining committed to aiding Williams’ revival bid, Albon admitted that he would have to potentially “look elsewhere” to fulfil his ultimate ambition of winning races.
The 27-year-old claimed the disastrous nature of his Red Bull stint hadn’t deterred him from the prospect of returning to a front-running team, and a seat with the Austrian outfit could become vacant if Perez’s troubles continue into the upcoming season.
While Red Bull has tended to resist re-signing drivers who weren’t deemed up to standard, Jordan believes a more experienced Albon would thrive if granted another opportunity.
“I have a real soft spot for Albon,” Jordan said on the Formula For Success podcast. “I just think that given the right situations I think he could really, really be mustard.
“I would like to see at some stage that he be given the chance alongside Max, because I think he might be a big surprise.”
Jordan’s comments on Albon emanated from a question posed to both him and David Coulthard regarding their ideal F1 driver line-up without being able to choose Verstappen.
“I’ll put Lewis Hamilton in there for sure,” Coulthard initially answered. “As someone that is just a winning machine when the vehicle is below him.
“I’ll put Fernando [Alonso] alongside him, just to see. When we ask the questions about the great rivalries, they didn’t really get along when they were team-mates back in the McLaren days, the first time, but how would it be now 39 [years old] in the case of Lewis and the other’s 42.
“But if it wasn’t someone like Fernando, I’ll go for a young developing rookie to learn off of Lewis for the future.
“So that could be an Oscar [Piastri], it could be a George [Russell]. Charles [Leclerc]. They’re all great drivers.”
However, Jordan admitted that his long-term approach to the situation would see him prioritise younger drivers, with Leclerc a notable name whom he rates very highly.
“I’m a huge fan of Leclerc,” Jordan added. “I’ll probably have him in there, for sure.
“Lewis would be very hard to overlook but I’d be sort of thinking of further down the road. So therefore, I wouldn’t have Alonso and I wouldn’t have Lewis necessarily.”
