Christijan Albers (
Christijan Albers (help·info)) (born April 16, 1979 in Eindhoven) is a Dutch racing driver. After success in the DTM he drove in Formula One from 2005 until the 2007 British Grand Prix, shortly after which he was dropped by his Spyker F1 team.1 In 2008, he returned to the DTM-series as a driver for the Audi Futurecom TME-team.
Personal
Christijan is the son of former rallycross ace and Porsche 911 Carrera campaigner André Albers, whose best overall result ever was to win the 1979 Dutch International Rallycross Championship (GT Division). They are not related to their compatriot Marcel Albers, who was killed in a British F3 accident at Thruxton in 1992.
Christijan is married to Liselore Kooijman. Their wedding took place on November 11, 2006 in Amsterdam.2 He resides in Monaco.
Early career
Albers began kart racing at a young age, winning the Dutch National championship in 1997. That same year, he was crowned Formula Ford 1800 champion in both Netherlands and Belgium. He also participated in the Renault Megane Marlboro Masters series. In 1998, he moved up to the German Formula Three series, winning the championship in 1999 behind 6 wins and ten poles.
In 2000, Albers raced in the International Formula 3000 championship as team-mate to Mark Webber. He failed to score a point, but team boss Paul Stoddart later signed him again. He also raced in European Formula Racing.
DTM
Beginning in 2001, Albers raced in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters for Mercedes-Benz, and graduated from a privately run team to the works AMG outfit in 2003 after the departure from the series of Uwe Alzen. He was instantly a front-runner, finishing runner-up in 2003 with a season-high 4 wins, and challenging DTM veteran and multiple champion Bernd Schneider for the title all the way up to the final race. In 2004 he again challenged for the championship lead for the most of the season but eventually finished third.
Results
Season 2001
- Team: Mercedes-Benz
- Points: 19, Position 14
Season 2002
- Team: Mercedes-Benz
- Points: 5, Position 12
Season 2003
- Team: AMG-Mercedes
- Points: 64, Position 2
- Wins: Adria, Nürburgring, Norisring, Zandvoort
Season 2004
- Team: AMG-Mercedes
- Points: 50, Position 3
- Wins: Estoril
Formula One
Minardi
While racing in the DTM, Albers continued to be a test and reserve driver for Minardi's Formula One interests, and has also piloted the team's two-seater F1 cars. In November 2004, he set the fastest time at a Misano di Gera d'Adda Minardi test session. He was chosen by the team to drive in the Formula One World Championship in 2005. In the 2005 United States Grand Prix he gained his first championship points with a fifth place finish, in a race where only six drivers started.
Midland/Spyker F1
On October 31, 2005 Albers was confirmed as Midland's first official Formula One driver. Midland, the re-named Jordan team, made their debut in the 2006 Formula One season.
Albers started the 2006 season well, out-pacing Midland teammate Tiago Monteiro. However, during the first few races, Midland found themselves battling with the Super Aguri team, particularly Takuma Sato. At the 2006 San Marino Grand Prix, Albers found himself being crashed into by Yuji Ide and sent into a series of spectacular rolls. Fortunately, he was unharmed. Ide was reprimanded by the race stewards for his part in the incident.
After initial confusion over Albers' plans for 2007 after the takeover of MF1 by Spyker Cars, it was eventually confirmed that he would be driving for the Spyker F1 team in 2007.
It was later found out that Albers signed a contract with Midland F1 to remain with the team prior to the sell to Spyker. Albers' personal sponsors had major influences in Spyker buying the Midland F1 team.3
In early 2007 he was outperformed by rookie team-mate Adrian Sutil. At Magny-Cours he ignored the lollipop telling him not to leave the pits during a pitstop, driving off with part of the fuel rig still attached. Albers expressed relief that nobody was hurt,4 but he received a €5,000 penalty for dangerous driving. Spyker technical director Mike Gascoyne commented that he was mystified by the mistake,5 and Niki Lauda described the incident as the most stupid thing he had ever seen in F1.6
On July 10, 2007 he was released from his Spyker contract, due to a lack of sponsorship money, which would have compromised the team's development programme. Team owner Michiel Mol described it as "one of the toughest decisions of my career".17 His replacement for the 2007 European Grand Prix was former Spyker test driver Markus Winkelhock.8 Sakon Yamamoto then raced for Spyker for the rest of the year.
Albers returned with the Spyker team for the Rotterdam street racing event in Holland, on the 18 / 19 August. After this Albers will look for a future outside of the Spyker team.9
Remainder of the 2007 season
Albers was present at both the Grand Prix at Monza and Spa, apparently looking at continuing his career within Formula One.
Return to DTM
Christijan Albers returned to the DTM-series in December 2007 as the Dutchman was invited by the Audi-team of Futurecom TME for a week of testing in Jerez de la Frontera.10 He tested for this team again on the Mugello Circuit in early March.
Christijan Albers was confirmed as a race driver for the Futurecom TME race team for 2008. He raced alongside Katherine Legge in a 2006 Specification Audi A4 DTM.11
Albers is the Netherlands' most successful driver in the DTM series, finishing as runner-up in the 2003 championship.
Sportscar Racing
It was announced on October 9, 2008 that Albers would be racing with Audi Sport North America in the American Le Mans Series. He piloted the #1 R10 TDI, partnered with Emanuele Pirro at Laguna Seca, the ALMS' final round. This was another step by Audi to bring youth to their Le Mans programs, following Marcel Fassler's two races in the R10. He finished this race in second place behind the #2 car from the same team. As of yet it is unknown if Albers will continue his career in sportscar racing.
Racing record
Career summary
* Season in progress.
Complete Formula One results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Complete International Formula 3000 results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
References
External links
