Christijan Albers () (born 16 April 1979) is a Dutch former professional racing driver. After success in the DTM he drove in Formula One from until the 2007 British Grand Prix, shortly after which he was dropped by the Spyker F1 team. 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 $80 million.
Personal Albers 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. 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 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 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
Minardi (2005)
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)
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.
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."Albers re-signs with Spyker MF1", Grandprix.com article dated September 29, 2006.
In early 2007, Albers 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,pitpass – the latest, hottest F1, GP2, GP2 Asia & A1GP news but he received a €5,000 penalty for dangerous driving. Spyker technical director Mike Gascoyne commented that he was mystified by the mistake.
On 10 July 2007, Albers 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". His replacement for the 2007 European Grand Prix was former Spyker test driver Markus Winkelhock. 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.
Team principal at Caterham F1 (2014) 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.
Return to DTM
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. He tested for this team again on the Mugello Circuit in early March.
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.
Albers is the Netherlands's most successful driver in the DTM series, finishing as runner-up in the 2003 championship.
Sportscar racing 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 No. 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.
Albers moved into the Le Mans Series for the 2009 season, moving to the customer Audi team, run by Colin Kolles.
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 Albers is part of the permanent team of Formula One analysts for the new Dutch sports broadcaster Viaplay from 2022 onwards. 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
Career summary 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 4 4 64 2nd 2004 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters HWA AMG 11 1 1 50 3rd Formula One Minardi F1 TeamTest driver 2005 Formula One Minardi F1 Team 19 0 0 4 19th 2006 Formula One MF1 RacingSpyker MF1 Racing 18 0 0 0 22nd 2007 Formula One Etihad Aldar Spyker F1 Team 9 0 0 0 25th2008 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 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
Complete German Formula Three results (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 HOC1 HOC2 NÜR1 NÜR2 SAC1 SAC2 NOR1 NOR2 LAH1 LAH2 WUN1 WUN2 ZWE1 ZWE2 SAL1 SAL2 OSC1 OSC2 NÜR1 NÜR2 5th 120 1999 Opel Team BSR Opel SAC1 SAC2 ZWE1 ZWE2 OSC1 OSC2 NOR1 NOR2 NÜR1 NÜR2 SAL1 SAL2 OSC1 OSC2 HOC1 HOC2 NÜR1 NÜR2 1st 229
Complete International Formula 3000 results (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 SIL CAT NÜR MON MAG A1R HOC HUN SPA 25th 0
Complete DTM results (key) Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Pts 2001 Persson Motorsport AMG-Mercedes CLK-DTM HOCQR HOCCR NÜRQR NÜRCR OSCQR OSCCR SACQR SACCR NORQR NORCR LAUQR LAUCR NÜRQR NÜRCR A1RQR A1RCR ZANQR ZANCR HOCQR HOCCR 14th 19 2002 Team Rosberg AMG-Mercedes CLK-DTM HOCQR HOCCR ZOLQR ZOLCR DONQR DONCR SACQR SACCR NORQR NORCR LAUQR LAUCR NÜRQR NÜRCR A1RQR A1RCR ZANQR ZANCR HOCQR HOCCR 12th 5 2003 HWA Team AMG-Mercedes CLK 2003 HOC ADR NÜR LAU NOR DON NÜR A1R ZAN HOC 2nd 64 2004 HWA Team AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2004 HOC EST ADR LAU NOR SHA NÜR OSC ZAN BRN HOC 3rd 50 2008 Futurecom TME Audi A4 DTM 2006 HOC OSC MUG LAU NOR ZAN NÜR BRH CAT BUG HOC 17th 0 † — Retired, but was classified as he completed 90% of the winner's race distance.
Complete Formula One results (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 Pts Minardi F1 Team Minardi PS04B Cosworth CR-3L 3.0 V10 AUS MAL BHR 19th 4 Minardi PS05 Cosworth TJ2005 3.0 V10 SMR ESP MON EUR CAN USA FRA GBR GER HUN TUR ITA BEL BRA JPN CHN16† Midland F1 Racing Midland M16 Toyota RVX-06 2.4 V8 BHR MAL AUS SMR EUR ESP MON GBR CAN USA FRA GER HUN TUR ITA 22nd 0 Spyker MF1 Racing Spyker M16 CHN JPN BRA Etihad Aldar Spyker F1 Team Spyker F8-VII Ferrari 056H 2.4 V8 AUS MAL BHR ESP MON19† CAN USA FRA GBR EUR HUN TUR ITA BEL JPN CHN BRA 25th 0 † 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 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 19th 21
24 Hours of Le Mans results Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps 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
Complete Le Mans Series results 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 SPA ALG NÜR SIL 23rd 6
Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results 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 SIL19 SÃO BHR FUJ SHA 87th 0.5
References
External links