BIOGRAPHY
		Full Name	Christijan Albers
		Nationality	Dutch
		Born	16 April 1979, Eindhoven
		Died
		Website	Official Website
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Biography

The son of Dutch rallycross and Porsche 911 Carrera driver André Albers, Christijan was an impressive performer in karts and won both the Dutch and Belgian Formula Ford 1600 titles in 1997.

His graduation to the German Formula 3 championship saw him continue to demonstrate his talents. He claimed a fine pair of wins at the Norisring street circuit in his rookie season, before claiming the 1999 title with six wins for Bertrand Schafer’s frontrunning Opel factory operation.

A move to Formula 1’s feeder series, International Formula 3000, proved a step too far for the youngster. Driving for Paul Stoddart’s European Arrows junior team alongside Mark Webber, Albers failed to score a point all season while his Australian rookie teammate finished third overall.

A lifeline came in the form of an opportunity to race in the DTM touring car championship in 2001, albeit in a year-old Mercedes run by Team Persson. A fine second place at Magny-Cours was a fitting reward, along with a move to Keke Rosberg’s team for the 2002 season where he once again impressed.

The sudden retirement of DTM legend Uwe Alzen saw Albers thrust into a full works car with the HWA team for 2004. Pitted against the vastly experienced Bernd Schneider, Albers claimed four wins and took the fight to the German veteran until the final round of the season, until a puncture thwarted his tilt at the Drivers’ Championship title.

Despite interest from both Jordan and Minardi to join the Formula 1 grid in 2004, Albers was only able to land a test driver role at the latter and remained racing with the HWA operation for another year. He claimed a fine win at Estoril, finishing third overall in the final standings.

He finally made his Grand Prix debut with Minardi for the 2005 season, in what would become the Italian team’s final year of Grand Prix racing. Team owner Paul Stoddart was perpetually short of funds to keep the team going, with competitiveness and reliability both suffering as components were stretched to their limit. In all, Albers finished thirteen races in his rookie season, picking up points for fifth place in the farcical six-car United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis.

Minardi was bought out by Red Bull at the end of the season to become Scuderia Toro Rosso, meaning Albers was not considered in the outfit’s plans for 2006.

He moved to the Midland squad, its Russian owners having bought out and renamed the Jordan team.  Its 2006 challenger was a bad car, and he could do little more than compete – and occasionally collide – with teammate Tiago Monteiro.

Before the end of the season, Midland’s owners had sold the team to the Spyker Cars brand.  With Albers’ personal sponsors having a major influence in its purchase of Midland, he assumed the role of de facto number-one driver for the 2007 season.

Worryingly, he found himself quickly outperformed by rookie teammate Adrian Sutil. With his star rapidly on the wane, he compounded his woes by embarrassingly driving out of the pits at the French Grand Prix with the fuel hose still attached to his car.

As his sponsorship money dried up, Albers was substituted from the German Grand Prix entry list in favour of Markus Winkelhock, and dropped altogether by the team after the British Grand Prix in place of the well-funded Sakon Yamamoto.

With his Formula 1 career at an end, Albers returned to he DTM scene in 2008. Saddled with a two-year-old Audi, he failed to score a points finish. He also had several endurance racing outings with Colin Kolles’ Le Mans Series team in the two years that followed.

The Dutchman was suddenly back in the F1 spotlight in mid-2014, surprisingly appointed by Kolles to the position of the Caterham F1 Team’s new Team Principal following Tony Fernandes’ sale of the outfit to a consortium of Swiss-Middle Eastern investors.  Despite having no previous team management experience, Albers performed well to right the floundering team and bring about improved competitiveness for the backmarker outfit.

Sadly, his stint proved all too brief, as he elected to quit his post after just a few races when his wife Liselore Kooijman was diagnosed with cancer.

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