A former Essex schoolboy has been given the call up to a championship winning F1 team.

Alex Albon, who is a former pupil at Littlegarth School, in Nayland, started his topflight career with Toro Rosso at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

Since then he has scored points at five of the 12 Grand Prix held this year.

The British-Thai driver's best finish was sixth place at a rain-hit German Grand Prix.

It has been announced he has been promoted to the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing team, the sister team of Toro Rosso.

He will race alongside race winner Max Verstappen at the team from the Belgium Grand Prix, replacing Pierre Gasly.

Red Bull said: "The team will use the next nine races to evaluate Alex’s performance in order to make an informed decision as to who will drive alongside Max in 2020.

"Everyone at the team looks forward to welcoming Alex and supporting him during the next phase of his F1 career."