“It’s A Significant Amount” – Red Bull Boss Horner Left Frustrated after Alex Albon’s Bahrain GP Practice Crash

The Bahrain GP race weekend has not gotten off to the right start for Red Bull driver, Alex Albon. Having performed decently in FP1, he was expected to get within half a second of teammate Max Verstappen in FP2.

In an unfortunate sequence of events, Albon lost the handling on his car around Turn 15. He went hurtling into the barriers, which caused quite a lot of damage to his machinery.

Albon later said that the surprise element of low grip caught him off-guard coming out onto the main straight. Trying to rescue his spin, he instead slammed into the wall, which will have Red Bull mechanics working on it to get it fixed at the earliest.

Red Bull boss Horner has said that the engine looks ‘OK’

Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner stated, “It’s frustrating. Thankfully, Alex is OK, that’s the main thing.

“Obviously, there’s a lot of superficial damage; the monocoque looked OK, the engine looks OK, it’s not a race gearbox, but it’s going to certainly keep the guys busy tonight.”

Naturally, such damage to the car would mean a lot of work would need to be done in order to get it car out on the grid for Saturday’s free practice. More importantly, he will need the car to be in proper shape for the all-important qualifying session.

“It’s difficult to quantify in money but it’s a significant amount because obviously the car’s been pulled into the barrier and it’s done at least three corners, if not all four corners – rear wing, front wing, nosebox – so it’s a significant amount,” concluded Horner.

Albon is under immense pressure to keep his seat for 2021

Much of these last races’ performances will determine the Thai driver’s future at the team. The crash would certainly have dented some of his confidence, and he now has to rebuild the momentum ahead of Saturday’s qualifying session.

His reported seat rival Sergio Perez, on the other hand, did a good job in both practice sessions. Thus, the heat is now on Albon. It will be interesting to see how he bounces back in qualifying at the Bahrain International Circuit.