“Hardest year I’ve had in my life,” Alex Albon opens up about his mother being sent to prison
Alexander Albon and Logan Sargeant at Zandvoort via IMAGO
Long before Alex Albon made his F1 debut, the entire opportunity of being a motorsports driver almost slipped out of the palm of his hands after family issues made a year of his life tough. His mother, Kankamol Albon, was arrested and sent to jail in 2012 following a multi-million-dollar scam, which saw Albon’s life going downhill. He described that period of time as the toughest time he had ever faced, as he saw his mother being arrested and locked up in jail for the crime she had done.
The Mirror first reported that she had been imprisoned for a £7.5 million auto swindle in 2018. She offered lower prices on Ferraris, Bentleys, and Rolls Royces to investors with the promise of reselling them later for large returns. Albon reckons it was “by far the hardest year I’ve had in my life.”
The majority of consumers, however, never received their automobiles, and one vehicle was sold to two distinct customers. With its own moat, Kankamol Albon had a £4 million country estate in Essex. Additionally, she paid £10,000 a year to send her five kids to private school. She was arrested in 2008, when she went bust before admitting false representation and cheating the public revenue.
Alex Albon’s F1 career almost shattered
Kankamol received a six-year prison term, but he was released in 2015. In order to raise an additional £60,000, cops sold her Mulberry purses while seizing her residence. Alex, who was 15 when his mother was imprisoned, is the second Thai driver to compete in Formula 1 after Prince Bira in 1954, despite the fact that his father is British.
He almost didn’t even make it to the F1 grid in 2019, though. Due to a dearth of F1 drivers, Albon decided to compete in Formula E while the Formula 2 series, the junior division directly below, was coming to a close.
After competing in 11 races for Toro Rosso, he took Gasly’s spot at Red Bull Racing for the remaining races of 2019, where he performed well enough to persuade team owner Christian Horner to keep him for the 2020 season.
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