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Nissan e.dams: F1 bound Albon would be welcome back in Formula E

Nissan e.dams team principal Jean-Paul Driot says the door is not closed for Toro Rosso Formula 1 signing Alexander Albon to one day rejoin his ABB FIA Formula E squad.

British-born Thai driver Albon signed a deal to partner 2015/16 FE champion Sebastien Buemi at Nissan (nee Renault) in September, when his attempts to find an F1 seat for 2019 looked to have been unsuccessful.

But before Albon even drove Nissan's Gen2 car in pre-season testing, Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko approached him about joining the returning Daniil Kvyat at Toro Rosso for the 2019 F1 season.

Driot agreed to release Albon from his contract, replacing him with Oliver Rowland, and tweeted his support for the 22-year-old - writing: "we cannot let good talents not follow their dreams" when Albon's FE release was confirmed.

When asked by Autosport about the nature of the tweet, Driot said: "It was just a normal reaction. I never write a tweet in order to please people, I always write a tweet when I think so - so things are clear.

"Knowing the drivers, the way I know them, how stupid would I be to be vexed or upset when you have a guy, who I think has a lot of talent, who is asked to go into Formula 1?

"It wouldn't be me to stop him and ruin his potential career in Formula 1.

"Motor racing at a very high level is a small club and we always meet the same people year after year.

"We will see how it goes and perhaps he will be very happy to come back with us one day in Formula E - why not?"

Driot, whose DAMS Formula 2 squad ran Albon to third place in the 2018 drivers' championship, explained his frustration with the contract situation was due to the way those around Albon handled the saga.

He claimed the outcome would have been the same even if Albon had driven in Valencia FE testing.

As the F1 talks unfolded, Albon was present at the FE test but ended up never driving the car.

"It was a bad situation because he was there, he didn't know what to do and he was embarrassed like we were," Driot added.

"When you are 22, you have the low years, the family pushing you like mad, sometimes they oblige you to be in a different position than you would like to be in.

"What upset me a lot is that if he had done the test in Valencia, things wouldn't have changed.

"We would have negotiated for his contract to wind up and to go join Toro Rosso. Nothing would have changed.

"This is also why I wrote the tweet, because without some people pushing his direction, things would have been exactly the same as the conclusion, and in a much smoother way."

Zdroj: autosport.com