Why the newest member of Class A is setting no targets in 2020

For another season or two at least - once racing does resume again - only six drivers can realistically expect to win races in Formula 1. The ruling class of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull has shared every grand prix win since 2014.

The drivers that don't win in those cars - Kimi Raikkonen (one well-executed victory at Austin aside), Daniil Kvyat, Pierre Gasly - are ultimately shown the door. Only two have walked away: Nico Rosberg and Daniel Ricciardo, into retirement and Renault respectively.

Red Bull has undergone the most line-up churn. Kvyat and Max Verstappen swapped seats, Ricciardo departed, and then - midway through last year - Gasly was demoted back to Toro Rosso, whence Alex Albon stepped up.

Albon enters this season as comfortably the least experienced class A driver. It's only a little over a year since he was completing his first laps at the wheel of an F1 car.

"There were a few restless nights before I drove the car," he recalls. "But, actually, looking back at it, it was that thing of 'you have all this attention but then actually once you get in the car - once you've got your helmet on, belts are strapped - you realise that's what you do best - that's what you're meant to do'. And the nerves go away then, and off I was - driving around in a Formula 1 car for the first time.

"Testing [with Toro Rosso] felt very smooth and I felt on pace, and I was on pace pretty quickly. Then it was just about getting to know the basic things - pitstops, strategy, looking after the tyres, the protocol of the steering wheel. That stuff is actually where you find little bits of laptime - playing with your set-up through the steering wheel and things like that.

"It was OK. When I first drove the car, after the stint [of] the first five laps I thought 'you know what? Ok - I got this, I can do this' and that was me really set for winter testing [in 2019]."

"This winter break came in handy - it was kind of the first proper sit-down with the team and the engineers, and getting some kind of plan together" Alex Albon

Albon started his rookie campaign alongside Kvyat, who was returning to the team he had been cast from in favour of the Gasly/Brendon Hartley line-up Toro Rosso took for 2018. This meant he could study a driver who had completed 72 races with the squad, and knew how to go about getting prepared for a new season.

So Albon began by watching Kvyat, even "just looking at body language - how he was communicating to the team", to get a sense of where he needed set the tone.

But by the summer break of 2019 - after negotiating a few incidents early on, such as his crash in Australia FP1, or his massive accident in China qualifying, from which he recovered to score a point in the race - Albon could play his own kind of music.

In the points Kvyat led 27-12, but the Russian had taken a somewhat fortuitous third place in Germany, where Albon had driven arguably his best race for Toro Rosso. But then everything changed as Red Bull came beckoning.

"As I started to settle down," he explains, "that was when I had the call! Then there was a reset."

From Spa, he had to go back to square one - learn how his new squad worked, and pick up cues from Verstappen that he hoped would help him get the best from the RB15 to find its "sweet spot", as well as gel with the senior Red Bull team.

The results came immediately - in every race of the remaining events but one, Albon finished in the points, in one of Class A's typical top-six positions. While this was enough to keep the drive for 2020, they weren't the headline three podiums and one win Verstappen scored over the same period.

In the one event where Albon finished out of the points, Brazil, he could well have finished second to his team-mate, but for a heart-wrenching late clash with Lewis Hamilton.

"In a way, it was even a bit harder just because we didn't get any testing - it was all done through FP1, FP2, FP3s," Albon says of joining Red Bull. "It wasn't as now, when we've had winter testing and that break [ahead of 2020] where we can really develop the car. It was very much like 'OK, I just need something, give me something and I'll work with it'.

"That's where this winter break came in handy - it was kind of the first proper sit-down with the team and the engineers, and getting some kind of plan together."

Albon might have been able to spend more time bonding with Red Bull over the winter, but he's facing the same issue Gasly had in the early phases of 2019. Namely, how to cope with matching Verstappen, and the additional pressure that brings.

Gasly had come into Red Bull after an impressive debut year with Toro Rosso. But his underwhelming start to life at the senior squad strengthened the argument that he should have been given at least another year to develop away from the glare of the Class A spotlight. When Ricciardo walked, Red Bull eschewed recalling Carlos Sainz from his Renault loan in favour of a gamble on Gasly.

The following summer Red Bull made another decisive call: to drop Gasly in favour of Albon after his absence from the fight at the front cost Verstappen victory against Hamilton in Hungary.

"For me it's not very much like 'I want to be here, by Spa I want to be blah-blah'. It's very much 'OK, what areas do I need to work on, am I feeling like I'm improving them, and if not, why am I not?'" Alex Albon

Albon does not have any assurances beyond 2020 - and as history shows, even completing the full year isn't guaranteed if he doesn't perform. But he insists team principal Christian Horner and Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko haven't issued a list of targets they expect him to hit before his future is confirmed.

"I'd say it's just [about] continuation," explains Albon. "I hold very high standards for myself and first of all the person who is not happy with me, is me. They know that, so it's very much that they know areas [where I know I can improve].

"They want to see improvement - that's the main thing. And I am improving. That's really it. There's no set targets - and [with that] you just add pressure for no reason. It's kind of letting me do my own thing and letting me focus on myself, and it will come."

Albon has recently moved to Monaco ("Just getting out of the family house - I do miss the laundry and the food!" he jokes). This brings him closer into Verstappen's orbit, after the pair were karting rivals before his team-mate's sudden rise to F1.

But it's not enough just to get close to a driver that many feel will go on to be a multiple world champion - judging by Red Bull's ruthless recent history, at least.

This season will bring targets and expectation - even if no one within the Red Bull camp is raising them in public. So, as his own harshest critic, here's Albon's plan to hang on to his Class A seat once racing gets underway.

Gently but firmly, he says: "For me it's not very much like 'I want to be here, by Spa I want to be blah-blah'. It's very much 'OK, what areas do I need to work on, am I feeling like I'm improving them, and if not, why am I not?'

"It's very much 'what can we do to improve that'. Things like that - just kind of 'I know if I get these little things creased out, the results will come'. And that's really how I'm going into the year - short-term minded in that sense. It's about very much looking at myself."

Albon is no stranger to career pressure, since his junior career was rarely guaranteed to go beyond the season he was embarking on. So in that respect, things must feel somewhat familiar.

But to ease the burden and satisfy notoriously demanding bosses, early success is a must for Albon in 2020: perhaps more than any other organisation on the grid, this one lives by the mantra of onwards and upwards - or out.