Christijan Albers

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Christijan Albers
Nationality	Dutch
Car #	21
Current team	Spyker F1
World Championship career
Races	38
World Championships	0
Wins	0
Podium finishes	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	2005 Australian Grand Prix
Latest race	2007 Australian Grand Prix
2006 Championship position	22nd (0 pts)

Christijan Albers (Christijan Albers (help·info)) (born April 16, 1979 in Eindhoven) is a Dutch racing driver, currently competing in Formula One with the Spyker F1 team.

Christijan is the son of former rallycross ace and Porsche campaigner André Albers, whos best overall result ever was to win the 1979 Dutch International Rallycross Championship (GT Division). They are not related to Marcel Albers, who was killed in a British F3 accident at Thruxton in 1992.

Contents 1 Early career 2 DTM 3 Formula One 3.1 Minardi 3.2 Midland/Spyker F1 4 Complete Formula One results 5 Personal 6 Complete DTM results 7 References 8 External links

[edit] 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 3 series, winning the championship in 1999 behind 6 wins and ten poles.

In 2000, Albers raced in the Formula 3000 international 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Formula One

[edit] 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 easily set the fastest time at a Misano di Gera d'Adda Minardi test session, despite running a mere 20 laps. 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.

[edit] Midland/Spyker F1

On October 31, 2005, Albers was confirmed as Midland's first official Formula One driver. Midland, the re-badged 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 have 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.^[1]

[edit] Complete Formula One results

(key)

Yr	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	WDC	Points
2005	Minardi Cosworth	Minardi PS04B	Cosworth V10	AUS Ret	MAL 13	BHR 13																	19th	4
		Minardi PS05					SMR Ret	ESP Ret	MON 14	EUR 17	CAN 11	USA 5	FRA Ret	GBR 18	GER 13	HUN Ret	TUR 19	ITA 11	BEL 14	BRA 14	JPN 16	CHN 16
2006	MF1 Racing	Midland M16	Toyota 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						22nd	0
	Spyker MF1 Team																	ITA 17	CHN 15	JPN Ret	BRA 14
2007	Spyker F1	Spyker F8-VII	Ferrari V8	AUS Ret	MAL Ret	BHR	ESP	MON	CAN	USA	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	TUR	ITA	BEL	JPN	CHN	BRA			-	0

[edit] Personal

Christijan is married to Liselore Kooijman. Their wedding took place on November 11, 2006, in Amsterdam.^[2] He currently resides in Laren, Netherlands.

[edit] Complete DTM results

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The official website for Christijan Albers

Constructors and drivers competing in the 2007 Formula One championship
McLaren	Renault	Ferrari	Honda	BMW	Toyota	Red Bull	Williams	Toro Rosso	Spyker	Super Aguri
1 Alonso 2 Hamilton	3 Fisichella 4 Kovalainen	5 Massa 6 Räikkönen	7 Button 8 Barrichello	9 Heidfeld 10 Kubica	11 Schumacher 12 Trulli	14 Coulthard 15 Webber	16 Rosberg 17 Wurz	18 Liuzzi 19 Speed	20 Sutil 21 Albers	22 Sato 23 Davidson

Spyker F1

Personnel: Michiel Mol | Colin Kolles | James Key | Mike Gascoyne

Current drivers: Christijan Albers | Adrian Sutil | Adrián Vallés | Giedo van der Garde | Mohamed Fairuz Fauzy | Markus Winkelhock

Formula One cars: F8-VII