Christijan Albers season review

Dutchman Christijan Albers had mixed fortunes during his debut season in Formula One with the Minardi Formula One team but ended the season assured of a second season in the top tier of motorsport with Bridgestone.

Albers, 26, finally made it into Formula One when Minardi team chief Paul Stoddart handed him a dream opportunity after spotting him racing competitively in the DTM touring car championship.
His Grand Prix debut in Australia was less than spectacular when he retired with a transmission failure but his fortune improved throughout the season and he finished 19th in the drivers' World Championship with four points. His best finish came in the United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis, but the thing that pleased him the most was seeing the gap to rivals Jordan Grand Prix and the rest of the pack close up as the season wore on.

Christijan Albers "If you see how Minardi changed then all the little things we achieved moved us a step forward. You can see we were competing with the Jordans by the end of the year and they were 1.5 seconds a lap faster in terms of their car."

Albers started the season with Austrian Formula 3000 graduate Patrick Friesacher as his team-mate and the pair built up a strong relationship within the team as they raced with a modified version of the 2004 cars before bringing in the 2005 machine later in the season. He attributed much of the car's improvements to the development work done by Friesacher and admits he was a little sorry that his friend was not there at the end of the season to reap the rewards.

"I think Patrick was doing a good job really and I could work very well with him. He gave a lot of feedback into the team and he contributed a lot. He put a lot of hard work into developing the car. It's a shame he didn't have the chance to compete with the car at the end of the year."

Albers was left without a drive following Minardi's sale to Red Bull but he wasted no time in sealing a move to the new Midland F1 team for 2006 with his team-mate rumoured to be Portuguese driver Tiago Monteiro. He will not have his first test until December but sees 2006 as his chance to step up a grade and is optimistic of enjoying a good season after praising Midland's Russian-born team owner Alex Shnaider.

"I think Alex needs to be given a lot of respect for buying a team because there are a lot of problems involved in something like that and I think he and the rest of the team handled it well this year. The car looks good, the engine I know is good and I think I can have a positive season. It's too difficult to say where we're going to be with the performance. I prefer to be the underdog and get the results because then the other team principals and journalists look at you and say 'Christijan Albers is doing a good job,' and that always helps."

With Midland using Bridgestones next year, Albers believes that a year's experience with the Japanese tyre supplier will benefit both him and the team. And he is looking forward to having two new front-running teams: Panasonic Toyota Racing and Williams F1, to help gather tyre data for Bridgestone.

"We will get much more data with more top teams coming to Bridgestones, and also the rules allowing us to change tyres during the race, will give us more of a chance against our rivals."