Alguersuari set to keep Toro Rosso seat
18 January 2010 by Keith Collantine
Jaime Alguersuari is likely keep his seat at Toro Rosso according to Red Bull’s Helmut Marko.
Marko told Italian site 422race.com: “It will be Alguersuari. We must still resolve some contractual details, but our choice will be him.”
He denied reports the team was considering replacing Alguersuari with Mirko Bortolotti or taking Bruno Senna from Campos.
Dropping Alguersuari when the Spanish driver made only eight starts for the team in 2009 after very little testing would not make a lot of sense.
Toro Rosso have already confirmed Sebastien Buemi will remain with the team this year.
But with Giancarlo Fisichella tipped to take the second seat at Sauber, Nick Heidfeld’s options are looking increasingly limited.
Read more: 2010 F1 drivers and teams
Good news, I really wanted them to keep him.
Like you say getting rid of him would be pointless,I wrote a post about it some time ago
http://www.tororossoblog.com/2010/01/why-alguersuari-must-stay-for-2010.html
I really think they should have just signed him straight away, I don’t see why its taken them so long. Can’t be good for his confidence.
Toro Rosso waited ages to confirm Bourdais last year, then they dropped him when it suddenly became apparent that their car wasn’t a race winner like it was in 2008. That was Bourdais’ fault, of course.
I hope Jaime doesn’t suffer a similar fate.
It would have been unfair for Toro Rosso to drop Alguersairi so early in his career but F1 is ruthless… if Alguersairi doesn’t show signs of progress in 2010 I reckon he’ll be dropped mid season.
On Heidfeld- surely he’ll end up at Renault? But I’m a bit concerned how bit quiet it’s gone on the Quick Nick front…
I agree with Toro Rosso decision, regarding Heidfeld, his doors are closing but Renault is still his klast option!
Show them the money!
I hope Nick catches the second Renault seat.
Yeah same. I really hope he does!
Chuffed it’s looking like Jamie is staying in F1 too
Be funny if Nick went to Renault and beat Kubica again.
Hope he does
Same Katy
I’m happy for him that he gets to keep his seat, he doesn’t deserve to be dropped, hoever, I was kind of hoping that Riccardo would get that seat. Oh well, just have to hope he does a good job of testing for Red Bull.
Agreed Macca. Ricardo will get his chance as some stage though.
I’m a little upset over Alguresari keeping his seat as I would like to have seen Brendon Hartley in F1 this year
I think Brendon will get into F1 once Buemi joins the Red Bull team
I think so too hopefully that will happen in 2011 if Webber leaves
TommyB
“I think Brendon will get into F1 once Buemi joins the Red Bull team”
Is that a done deal?
No but I think Buemi will join Red Bull Racing in the not to distant future. Maybe 2011
Toro Rosso; who wants to bet that one of the drivers will be out before the season is over. Not because the drier is bad but due to they just dont think he has it.
They release there pilots many time so far. but the pilots they haf had are not so good. scott speed, vitantonio liuzzi, sebastian bourdais. Only Vettel is moved on and he was lucky for win at monza to help him move to Red bull. He already had good finish in the other races. Maybe can put alguersuari there also he has bad record so far compare to vettel.
That’s good,if Webber go away from Red Bull in 2011 & Vettel doing it in 2012 then Red Bull will have Sebastien Buemi & Jaime Alguersuar in their list.
“It will be Alguersuari. We must still resolve some contractual details, but our choice will be him.”
That, my friends, is the confirmation that Alguersuari will NOT drive with Toro Rosso this year. The old excuse of “contractual details” was always a good code, if you didn’t want to keep a driver, but couldn’t afford to say so. I’d guess that they are looking at someone else but have just not finished the negotiations yet.
Anyone else think Webber is massively overrated, compared to the standard of the RB car and Vettel, I think hes totally out of his league. Kobayashi and Vettel would be cool team.
Not really, he did come 4th in the drivers championship last year didn’t he? So, no I don’t think he is overrated I just think he is just not as good as Vettel that doesn’t mean he is a bad driver though. However I agree that Kobayashi would be awesome in a Redbull or Mercedes or Mclaren or Ferrari, a good car will see him in the top order of F1. Also does anyone else think that Kobayashi may be nicked from Sauber Ferrari by Scuderia Ferrari after Alonso throws another hissy fit over being beaten by his teammate and goes back to Renault for 2011?
4th in a Red Bull is not great though, and he never looked like challenging. I just think he has no pace at all.
As much as Teflonso is a petulant bad loser, he is a great driver and will expose Massa badly. FM can put in good laps, but not be consistently quick, and prone to totally unforced errors, Im amazed Ferrari prefer him to Kimi. Alonso is a main challenger again, cant wait for KK (Pocket Kings) to get a quick car, in fact him and lewis would be dynamite together.