Christijan Albers

Christijan Albers bucked the recent trend of Formula One drivers switching to the DTM Championship after their F1 careers are over and instead entered F1 from the German series.

Christijan enjoyed his first taste of success in 1997 when he was crowned the Dutch National Kart Champion before moving to the German F3 Championship the following year.

It took just two seasons before once again he was at the very top, winning the title in 1999.

After one year in the F3000 International Championship he switched to DTM and also became the official test and





… More reserve driver for Minardi.

He retained that roll in 2002 while still competing in Germany.
2003 was a successful season for the Dutchman, who finished runner-up despite scoring the most victories in DTM. He continued the next year, finishing third overall.

Having shown obvious signs of talent throughout his motorsport career, Christijan entered F1 with Minardi in 2005 and put together some respectable performances.

He scored points and beat his team-mate in the six-car United States Grand Prix.

But even though that was the Dutchman's only point-scoring result as Minardi once again struggled to find any pace, his performances were good enough to earn him a Midland seat for 2006.

It proved to be a tough second season for the Dutchman as the team ran on a limited budget and he often found himself battling against the Super Aguris and his own team-mate.

Christijan, though, did get the upper hand over Monteiro and earned himself a new contract with the team who will be known as Spyker in 2007 after being sold once again.

And with Ferrari engines powering Christijan's car in 2007, the Dutchman can hope for better things. The question, though, is: will they come?