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Christijan Albers

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Christijan Albers (Christijan Albersⓘ) (born 16 April 1979) is a Dutch former professional 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 the Spyker F1 team.[1] In 2008, he returned to the DTM series as a driver for the Audi Futurecom TME team. Albers acted as Team Principal and CEO of the Caterham F1 Team from July to September 2014 after it was acquired by new team owners. His estimated net-worth is $50 million.[2]

Christijan Albers
Albers at the 2006 United States Grand Prix
Born (1979-04-16) 16 April 1979 (age 45)
Eindhoven, North Brabant, Netherlands
Formula One World Championship career
NationalityNetherlands Dutch
Active years2005–2007
TeamsMinardi, Midland, Spyker
Entries46
Championships0
Wins0
Podiums0
Career points4
Pole positions0
Fastest laps0
First entry2005 Australian Grand Prix
Last entry2007 British Grand Prix
Christijan Albers
Le Mans Series career
Debut season2009
Current teamKolles
Starts5
Wins0
Poles0
Fastest laps0
Previous series
2008
2005–07
2001–04, 2008
2001–02, 2004
2000
1999
1998–99
1998–99
1997		American Le Mans Series
Formula One
DTM
Formula One testing
International Formula 3000
Belcar
British F3
German F3
Formula Ford 1800 Benelux
Championship titles
1999
1997		German F3
Formula Ford 1800 Benelux
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years2009–2010
TeamsKolles
Best finish9th (2009)
Class wins0

Personal

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Christijan was born in Eindhoven, the son of former rallycross ace and Porsche 911 Carrera campaigner André Albers, who won the 1979 Dutch International Rallycross Championship (GT Division). They are not related to their compatriot Marcel Albers, who was killed in a British Formula Three accident at Thruxton in 1992.

Albers is married to Liselore Kooijman. Their wedding took place on 11 November 2006 in Amsterdam.[3] He resides in Monaco.

Early career

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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 with six 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

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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 four 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 most of the season but eventually finished third.

Formula One

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Minardi (2005)

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Albers driving for Minardi at the 2005 Canadian Grand Prix.

While racing in the DTM, Albers continued to be a test and reserve driver for Minardi's Formula One interests, and also drove the team's two-seater Formula One 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. At the 2005 United States Grand Prix he gained his first championship points with a fifth-place finish, a race where only six drivers started.

Midland/Spyker F1 (2006–2007)

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Albers driving the Midland M16 during the 2006 United States Grand Prix.

On 31 October 2005 Albers was confirmed as Midland's first official Formula One driver. Midland, the renamed 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. Incredibly he was unharmed. Ide was reprimanded by the race stewards. Ide also had his Super Licence revoked for severe dangerous driving.

 
Albers driving at Silverstone after Spyker's purchase of the team.
 
Albers driving for Spyker F1 at the 2007 British Grand Prix.

After initial confusion over Albers's 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 sale to Spyker. Albers's personal sponsors had major influences in Spyker buying the Midland F1 team.[4]

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,[5] but he received a €5,000 penalty for dangerous driving. Spyker technical director Mike Gascoyne commented that he was mystified by the mistake.[6]

On 10 July 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".[1][7] 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 the Netherlands, on the 18 / 19 August.[9]

Team principal at Caterham F1 (2014)

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On 2 July 2014 Tony Fernandes sold the Caterham F1 Team to a consortium of Swiss-Middle Eastern investors. Subsequently, team principal Cyril Abiteboul stepped down and Albers was given his position in the team by the consortium. He ran the team on a day-to-day basis until Caterham collapsed following the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.[10]

Return to DTM

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Albers driving an Audi at Norisring in 2008.

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.[11] 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.[12]

Albers is the Netherlands's most successful driver in the DTM series, finishing as runner-up in the 2003 championship.

Sportscar racing

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It was announced on 9 October 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 Fässler's two races in the R10. He finished this race in second place behind the #2 car from the same team.

He moved into the Le Mans Series for the 2009 season, moving to the customer Audi team, run by Colin Kolles.

Helmet design

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Albers' helmet design

Albers' helmet design consists of an orange helmet with multiple black dots over it. He later changed it to the same design, but with inverted colors.

Career as TV analyst

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Albers is part of the permanent team of Formula One analysts for the new Dutch sports broadcaster Viaplay from 2022 onwards.[13] At the Dutch TV channel, Albers is accompanied by other analysts such as former Formula One driver Giedo van der Garde as well as Tom Coronel and former GP2 driver and current WEC driver Ho-Pin Tung.

Racing record

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Career summary

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Season Series Team Races Poles Wins Points Position
1997 Formula Ford 1800 Benelux ? ? ? ? ? 1st
1998 German Formula Three Van Amersfoort Racing 20 1 2 120 5th
Macau Grand Prix 1 0 0 N/A NC
Masters of Formula Three 1 0 0 N/A NC
British Formula 3 Opel Team BSR 1 0 0 0 NC
1999 German Formula Three Opel Team BSR 18 6 6 229 1st
British Formula 3 1 0 0 0 NC
Macau Grand Prix 1 0 0 N/A NC
Masters of Formula Three 1 0 0 N/A 4th
Korea Super Prix 1 0 0 N/A NC
2000 International Formula 3000 European Arrows 9 0 0 0 27th
2001 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters Persson Motorsport 20 0 0 19 14th
2002 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters Team Rosberg 20 0 0 5 12th
2003 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters HWA AMG 10 0 4 64 2nd
2004 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters HWA AMG 11 1 1 50 3rd
Formula One Minardi F1 Team Test driver
2005 Formula One Minardi F1 Team 19 0 0 4 19th
2006 Formula One MF1 Racing
Spyker MF1 Racing 		18 0 0 0 22nd
2007 Formula One Etihad Aldar Spyker F1 Team 9 0 0 0 25th
2008 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters Futurecom TME 11 0 0 0 17th
American Le Mans Series Audi Sport North America 1 0 0 21 19th
2009 Le Mans Series Kolles 5 0 0 6 14th
Le Mans 24 Hours - LMP1 Kolles 1 0 0 N/A 9th
2010 Le Mans 24 Hours - LMP2 Kolles 1 0 0 N/A NC
2012 FIA World Endurance Championship Lotus 1 0 0 0,5 87th
Sources:[14][15][16]

Complete German Formula Three results

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(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 DC Pts
1998 Van Amersfoort Racing Opel HOC
1
3 		HOC
2
Ret 		NÜR
1
6 		NÜR
2
10 		SAC
1
13 		SAC
2
10 		NOR
1
1 		NOR
2
1 		LAH
1
16 		LAH
2
18 		WUN
1
9 		WUN
2
5 		ZWE
1
8 		ZWE
2
6 		SAL
1
7 		SAL
2
4 		OSC
1
2 		OSC
2
3 		NÜR
1
3 		NÜR
2
11 		5th 120
1999 Opel Team BSR Opel SAC
1
Ret 		SAC
2
7 		ZWE
1
7 		ZWE
2
3 		OSC
1
1 		OSC
2
3 		NOR
1
1 		NOR
2
2 		NÜR
1
1 		NÜR
2
1 		SAL
1
1 		SAL
2
7 		OSC
1
3 		OSC
2
EX 		HOC
1
1 		HOC
2
5 		NÜR
1
2 		NÜR
2
2 		1st 229

Complete International Formula 3000 results

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(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DC Points
2000 European Arrows F3000 IMO
Ret 		SIL
Ret 		CAT
12 		NÜR
Ret 		MON
Ret 		MAG
7 		A1R
Ret 		HOC
DNQ 		HUN
Ret 		SPA
8 		25th 0
Sources:[14][15]

Complete DTM results

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(key)

Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Pos. Pts
2001 Persson Motorsport AMG-Mercedes CLK-DTM HOC
QR
13 		HOC
CR
13 		NÜR
QR
13 		NÜR
CR
12 		OSC
QR
11 		OSC
CR
11 		SAC
QR
16 		SAC
CR
2 		NOR
QR
13 		NOR
CR
16 		LAU
QR
12 		LAU
CR
16 		NÜR
QR
8 		NÜR
CR
9 		A1R
QR
11 		A1R
CR
Ret 		ZAN
QR
8 		ZAN
CR
Ret 		HOC
QR
14 		HOC
CR
9 		14th 19
2002 Team Rosberg AMG-Mercedes CLK-DTM HOC
QR
Ret 		HOC
CR
Ret 		ZOL
QR
13 		ZOL
CR
6 		DON
QR
11 		DON
CR
4 		SAC
QR
13 		SAC
CR
8 		NOR
QR
10 		NOR
CR
6 		LAU
QR
20 		LAU
CR
14 		NÜR
QR
18 		NÜR
CR
17 		A1R
QR
19 		A1R
CR
13 		ZAN
QR
Ret 		ZAN
CR
12 		HOC
QR
11 		HOC
CR
9 		12th 5
2003 HWA Team AMG-Mercedes CLK 2003 HOC
5 		ADR
1 		NÜR
1 		LAU
7 		NOR
1 		DON
5 		NÜR
2 		A1R
3 		ZAN
1 		HOC
12 		2nd 64
2004 HWA Team AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2004 HOC
2 		EST
1 		ADR
2 		LAU
2 		NOR
2 		SHA
6 		NÜR
16† 		OSC
12 		ZAN
3 		BRN
Ret 		HOC
7 		3rd 50
2008 Futurecom TME Audi A4 DTM 2006 HOC
Ret 		OSC
16 		MUG
13 		LAU
14 		NOR
Ret 		ZAN
Ret 		NÜR
11 		BRH
14 		CAT
10 		BUG
13 		HOC
Ret 		17th 0
Sources:[15][17]
  • † — Retired, but was classified as he completed 90% of the winner's race distance.

Complete Formula One results

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(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 WDC Pts
2005 Minardi F1 Team Minardi PS04B Cosworth CR-3L 3.0 V10 AUS
Ret 		MAL
13 		BHR
13 		19th 4
Minardi PS05 Cosworth TJ2005 3.0 V10 SMR
Ret 		ESP
Ret 		MON
14 		EUR
17 		CAN
11 		USA
5 		FRA
Ret 		GBR
18 		GER
13 		HUN
NC 		TUR
Ret 		ITA
19 		BEL
12 		BRA
14 		JPN
16 		CHN
16†
2006 Midland F1 Racing Midland M16 Toyota RVX-06 2.4 V8 BHR
Ret 		MAL
12 		AUS
11 		SMR
Ret 		EUR
13 		ESP
Ret 		MON
12 		GBR
15 		CAN
Ret 		USA
Ret 		FRA
15 		GER
DSQ 		HUN
10 		TUR
Ret 		ITA
17 		22nd 0
Spyker MF1 Racing Spyker M16 CHN
15 		JPN
Ret 		BRA
14
2007 Etihad Aldar Spyker F1 Team Spyker F8-VII Ferrari 056H 2.4 V8 AUS
Ret 		MAL
Ret 		BHR
14 		ESP
14 		MON
19† 		CAN
Ret 		USA
15 		FRA
Ret 		GBR
15 		EUR HUN TUR ITA BEL JPN CHN BRA 25th 0
Sources:[15][18]

† Did not finish the race, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance.

Complete American Le Mans Series results

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Year Entrant Class Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Rank Points Ref
2008 Audi Sport North America LMP1 Audi R10 TDI Audi 5.5L Turbo V12
(Diesel) 		SEB STP LNB UTA LIM MID AME MOS DET PET MON
2 		19th 21 [19]

24 Hours of Le Mans results

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Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
2009   Kolles   Christian Bakkerud
  Giorgio Mondini 		Audi R10 TDI LMP1 360 9th 9th
2010   Kolles   Christian Bakkerud
  Oliver Jarvis 		Audi R10 TDI LMP1 331 DNF DNF
Sources:[15][20]

Complete Le Mans Series results

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Year Entrant Class Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 Rank Points
2009 Kolles LMP1 Audi R10 TDI Audi TDI 5.5 L Turbo V12 (Diesel) CAT
Ret 		SPA
7 		ALG
Ret 		NÜR
Ret 		SIL
5 		23rd 6
Source:[15]

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

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Year Entrant Class Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Rank Points
2012 Lotus LMP2 Lola B12/80 Lotus (Judd) 3.6 L V8 SEB SPA LMS SIL
19 		SÃO BHR FUJ SHA 87th 0.5
Source:[15]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Spkyer drops Albers". F1Racing.net, now GPUpdate.net. 10 July 2007. Archived from the original on 2012-04-03. Retrieved 30 January 2011.
  2. ^ Galloway, James. "Caterham Team Principal Christijan Albers resigns just nine weeks after joining". Sky Sports. BSkyB. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
  3. ^ "Christijan Albers married his fiancee Liselore Kooijman". flagworld.auto123.com. 2006-11-15. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved 2006-11-15.
  4. ^ "Albers re-signs with Spyker MF1", Grandprix.com article dated September 29, 2006.
  5. ^ pitpass – the latest, hottest F1, GP2, GP2 Asia & A1GP news
  6. ^ "autosport.com — F1 News: Gascoyne mystified by Albers' mistake". Autosport. Retrieved 2016-01-26.
  7. ^ "Christijan Albers loses Spyker drive". ITV Sport. Archived from the original on 6 March 2008. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  8. ^ "Winkelhock name to return to F1". news.bbc.co.uk. 2007-07-18. Retrieved 2007-07-18.
  9. ^ "Albers returns at Spyker next week". gpupdate.net. 10 August 2007. Retrieved 30 January 2011.
  10. ^ "Caterham to continue racing as sale is confirmed". f1fanatic.co.uk. 2 July 2014. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
  11. ^ "Albers returns to DTM". f1.gpupdate.net. 11 December 2007. Retrieved 30 January 2011.
  12. ^ "Christijan Albers Confirmed At Futurecom TME". dtm.de. 2008-04-05. Archived from the original on August 15, 2011. Retrieved 2008-04-05.
  13. ^ "Coronel, Albers en Van der Garde toegevoegd aan team analisten Viaplay". F1Maximaal.nl (in Dutch). 2021-12-08. Retrieved 2022-01-30.
  14. ^ a b "Christijan Albers". Motor Sport. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g "Christijan Albers Results". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  16. ^ "Christijan Albers: Racedriver biography – career and success". Speedsport Magazine. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  17. ^ "Christijan Albers race results". TouringCars.net. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  18. ^ "Christijan Albers – Involvement". StatsF1. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  19. ^ "Christijan Albers – 2008 American Le Mans Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  20. ^ "Christijan Albers". Automobile Club de l'Ouest. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
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Sporting positions
Preceded by Dutch Formula Ford
Champion
1997 		Succeeded by
Preceded by German Formula Three Champion
1999 		Succeeded by
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