Buemi lost his Toro Rosso seat at the end of 2011

Red Bull have announced Sebastien Buemi will be their reserve driver for 2012.

Buemi drove for Toro Rosso from 2009 to 2011, but was dropped at the end of last season.

Buemi said: “It’s good to remain with Red Bull for another year and have this opportunity with the World Championship winning team.

“I would prefer to be driving at the races of course, but working with Red Bull Racing on the development of their car and providing them with feedback throughout the season is the next best thing.”

Christian Horner added: “It was entirely logical for Sebastien to continue with Red Bull having been a member of the Junior Team since 2004.

“He already knows the team well from his time with us in 2008 and has gained significant race experience over the past three years. He will complete important test and simulation work for us throughout the year and will be in attendance at each grand prix.”

Update: Toro Rosso have confirmed Buemi will also be their reserve driver.

More information on the 2012 F1 season.

2012 F1 season

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• Live: 2012 F1 testing day three – Jerez
• Schumacher quickest on day two of test as Webber leads 2012 runners
• Jerez test day two in 100 pictures
• Live: 2012 F1 testing day two – Jerez
• Raikkonen leads Di Resta on first day of Jerez test
• Red Bull RB8 seen for first time as Jerez test begins
• Williams FW34 launch: First pictures of their 2012 F1 car

Image © Red Bull/Getty images

Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso, Monza, 2011

With Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne on Friday testing duty at Toro Rosso during the season, the pressure was on the team’s regular drivers to deliver in 2011.

This produced one of the most intriguing intra-team battles of the season. It began at the first corner of the first lap of the first race, as Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari made contact.

Over the course of the year Buemi generally held the upper hand in qualifying. Alguersuari seemed ill-suited to the new tyres at first and after six races Buemi had scored all the teams’ points.

Alguersuari was not the only driver to be troubled by tyre degradation on the new Pirellis early in the season. But by focussing on his race set-up, often at the expense of qualifying performance, gradually he got on top of the problem and started to deliver.

This produced some remarkable runs from the lower reaches of the grid into the points. Alguersuari finish eighth having started from the pits in Canada. He was eighth in Valencia from 18th on the grid and continued his trend of reaching the points from 18th on the grid at Silverstone and Monza.

His team mate proved capable of similar feats when they were required of him, rising from 23rd on the grid in Hungary to finish eighth. This was off the back of a poor weekend in Germany where he’d collected a grid penalty for pushing Nick Heidfeld off the track.

The Belgian Grand Prix promised much for the team, with Alguersuari starting a career-best sixth. But he was hit by Bruno Senna at the first corner, ending his race.

Six laps later his team mate joined him in retirement after a collision with Sergio Perez.

In the closing stages of the season it looked as though Toro Rosso were poised to surge past Sauber and Force India to claim sixth in the constructors’ championship – far ahead of their pre-season target of eighth.

Jaime Alguersuari, Sebastien Buemi, Nick Heidfeld, Shanghai

An exhaust-blown diffuser upgrade introduced at Suzuka was key to the team’s surge in performance. The following race in Korea brought their best result since the 2009 Australian Grand Prix, Alguersuari seventh and Buemi ninth.

But reliability problems frustrated the team at this late stage. Buemi was particularly hard done by. He retired when a wheel came off his car after a pit stop at Suzuka, had an engine failure in India and a hydraulics failure in Abu Dhabi.

This ended Buemi’s hopes of beating his team mate and, more importantly, meant the team stayed behind Force India and Sauber in eighth place. That satisfied their pre-season target but team principal Franz Tost admitted his disappointment at not finishing higher.

Nonetheless the team had clearly made progress since last year as it continues to develop its technical department. Further new recruits have been announced for 2012 in the shape of Luca Furbatto and Jon Tomlinson as Toro Rosso continues its conversion from Red Bull chassis customers to full-blown constructors.

But with four drivers vying for a place in F1 next year it will be a fascinating off-season for Toro Rosso.

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Images © Red Bull/Getty images

“At the start of the season, we set ourselves the target of finishing at least eighth in the constructors’ championship and that is where we have finished, 36 points ahead of those in ninth place.

“However, having come so close to challenging for seventh place when we picked up a significant number of points in Korea and India, we cannot be happy with missing out on overtaking the team ahead of us, failing to score in the last two races.”

Toro Rosso drivers’ lap times throughout the race (in seconds):

Sebastien Buemi

Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso, Interlagos, 2011

“We did not have a good preparation for qualifying,” lamented Buemi. “I was unable to run in the morning.”

“Added to the fact I did not drive in FP1, because Jean-Eric [Vergne] was in my car on Friday morning, I’ve really had very few laps so far this weekend. We must learn from these mistakes to ensure we don’t make them again.”

Buemi started one place behind his team mate and finished there after an uneventful race.

Sebastien Buemi 2011 form guide

Jaime Alguersuari

Alguersuari headed an all-Toro Rosso row seven. But the pair were unable to keep Kamui Kobayashi behind, costing Toro Rosso a chance of seventh in the constructors’ championship:

“This was a difficult race right from the start,” he said, blaming: “low grip in the first stint on the softer tyre, especially in terms of traction and at the exit to slow corners. I was struggling a lot to follow Buemi and Perez.

“The second stint on the harder tyre was much better, but it’s hard to understand in general why we seem to have lost performance in the last two races.”

Jaime Alguersuari 2011 form guide

Jean-Eric Vergne

Drove Buemi’s car in first practice.

2011 Brazilian Grand Prix

• Sutil voted Driver of the Weekend for Brazil
• Vettel "definitely affected" by gearbox problem - Webber
• 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix: complete race weekend review
• Vote for Brazilian GP driver of the weekend
• Red Bull: Gearbox glitch hands win to Webber
• McLaren: Button wanted to pass Alonso without using DRS
• Massa makes 100 Ferrari starts but no podium
• Ferrari: Alonso slips back on medium tyres
• Mercedes: Two-stop strategy leaves Rosberg vulnerable
• Force India: Sutil equals best result of the year

Image © Red Bull/Getty images

F1 pictures

• Jerez test day three in pictures
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• Red Bull RB8 seen for first time as Jerez test begins
• Williams FW34 launch: First pictures of their 2012 F1 car
• Toro Rosso STR7 - first pictures and video of Toro Rosso's 2012 F1 car
• Red Bull RB8 launch - first pictures and video of Red Bull's 2012 F1 car
• Sauber C31 launch - first pictures and video of Sauber's 2012 F1 car
• Ferrari F2012 launch - first pictures and video of Ferrari's 2012 F1 car
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Images © Ferrari spa/Ercole Colombo, Renault/LAT, Williams/LAT, McLaren, Getty Images/Red Bull, Force India/Sutton, Sauber F1 Team, Team Lotus, Virgin Racing, Motioncompany, Pirelli

F1 pictures

• Jerez test day three in pictures
• Jerez test day two in 100 pictures
• Red Bull RB8 seen for first time as Jerez test begins
• Williams FW34 launch: First pictures of their 2012 F1 car
• Toro Rosso STR7 - first pictures and video of Toro Rosso's 2012 F1 car
• Red Bull RB8 launch - first pictures and video of Red Bull's 2012 F1 car
• Sauber C31 launch - first pictures and video of Sauber's 2012 F1 car
• Ferrari F2012 launch - first pictures and video of Ferrari's 2012 F1 car
• McLaren MP4-27 launch - first pictures of McLaren's 2012 F1 car
• Kimi Raikkonen continues his F1 familiarisation in Valencia

View more F1 pictures

Images © Ferrari spa/Ercole Colombo, Renault/LAT, Williams/LAT, McLaren, Getty Images/Red Bull, Force India/Sutton, Sauber F1 Team, Team Lotus, Virgin Racing, Motioncompany, Pirelli

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Interlagos, 2011

Sebastian Vettel put Red Bull on top in the final practice session for the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Team mate Mark Webber was third fastest with the McLaren pair second and fourth.

The Renault drivers were out first, Bruno Senna heading the times briefly on his home track before pitting.

The next driver to head the times was Lewis Hamilton, before team mate Jenson Button beat his fastest lap on the harder tyres.

Sebastian Vettel edged Button with his last effort, going just five-hundredths of a second faster than the McLaren.

The Mercedes drivers were the first onto soft tyres, Rosberg getting within a tenth of a second of Vettel’s time.

Webber – still on the harder tyres – beat Vettel’s time by three-hundredths of a second, before Adrian Sutil hit the top of the times with a 1’13.113 on softs.

Fernando Alonso was the next driver to go fastest, lowering the mark to 1’12.765, before Hamilton eclipsed his time by a tenth of a second.

But it was a familiar sight at the end of the session as Vettel set the fastest time once again, then improved it to end up on a 1’12.460.

Button moved up to second, less than a tenth of a second behind the Red Bull, with Webber taking third on a 1’12.597, pushing Hamilton down to fourth.

Sutil’s time was good enough to put him sixth behind Alonso, and ahead of the two Mercedes. Michael Schumacher had a near-miss when he came across a dawdling Massa in the pit lane exit at the end of the session.

Massa ended up tenth behind Paul di Resta. But Sebastien Buemi was unable to set a time after a technical problem on his Toro Rosso.

Combined practice times

2011 Brazilian Grand Prix

• Sutil voted Driver of the Weekend for Brazil
• Vettel "definitely affected" by gearbox problem - Webber
• 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix: complete race weekend review
• Vote for Brazilian GP driver of the weekend
• Red Bull: Gearbox glitch hands win to Webber
• McLaren: Button wanted to pass Alonso without using DRS
• Massa makes 100 Ferrari starts but no podium
• Ferrari: Alonso slips back on medium tyres
• Mercedes: Two-stop strategy leaves Rosberg vulnerable
• Force India: Sutil equals best result of the year

Image © Red Bull/Getty images

F1 pictures

• Jerez test day three in pictures
• Jerez test day two in 100 pictures
• Red Bull RB8 seen for first time as Jerez test begins
• Williams FW34 launch: First pictures of their 2012 F1 car
• Toro Rosso STR7 - first pictures and video of Toro Rosso's 2012 F1 car
• Red Bull RB8 launch - first pictures and video of Red Bull's 2012 F1 car
• Sauber C31 launch - first pictures and video of Sauber's 2012 F1 car
• Ferrari F2012 launch - first pictures and video of Ferrari's 2012 F1 car
• McLaren MP4-27 launch - first pictures of McLaren's 2012 F1 car
• Kimi Raikkonen continues his F1 familiarisation in Valencia

View more F1 pictures

Images © Ferrari spa/Ercole Colombo, Renault/LAT, Williams/LAT, McLaren, Getty Images/Red Bull, Force India/Sutton, Sauber F1 Team, Team Lotus, Virgin Racing, Motioncompany, Pirelli

Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, Interlagos, 2011

The drivers who shared the front row of the grid for the last race were quickest in the second practice session in Brazil.

Lewis Hamilton headed the times in an uneventful session. He was followed by Sebastian Vettel, with the other Red Bull of Mark Webber in third.

Hamilton led the running early in the session on the harder tyres. Michael Schumacher briefly took over at the top of the times after switching to the soft compound.

Hamilton quickly returned to the top but Schumacher’s best effort remained within three-tenths of a second of the McLaren.

The Red Bull drivers were unable to beat Hamilton’s best time and Fernando Alonso took fourth.

Behind Schumacher were Felipe Massa, Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg. The two Force Indias completed the top ten, Adrian Sutil ahead of Paul di Resta.

Shortly before the end of the session Sergio Perez came to a stop at Juncao, telling the team he had a gearbox problem.

Image © McLaren

Mark Webber, Red Bull, Interlagos, 2011

Mark Webber headed the first practice session for the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The Red Bull pilot was just 14 thousandths of a second quicker than Jenson Button.

The McLaren and Red Bull cars swapped fastest times during the session. Lewis Hamilton was third quickest ahead of Sebastian Vettel, the world champion wearing a new helmet-mounted camera during the session.

The two Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso were next. Alonso’s session came to an end when his engine failed five minutes before the chequered flag came out.

Romain Grosjean, driving Vitaly Petrov’s car, also came to a stop before the end of the session with a technical problem on the Renault.

Several other teams ran one-off drivers during the session. Nico Hulkenberg was eighth-quickest for Force India behind Michael Schumacher.

Jean-Eric Vergne was 18th for Toro Rosso, Luiz Razia 20th for Lotus and Jan Charouz last in the HRT.

Kamui Kobayashi had a minor spin during the session but didn’t hit anything and ended up 15th-fastest.

2011 Brazilian Grand Prix

• Sutil voted Driver of the Weekend for Brazil
• Vettel "definitely affected" by gearbox problem - Webber
• 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix: complete race weekend review
• Vote for Brazilian GP driver of the weekend
• Red Bull: Gearbox glitch hands win to Webber
• McLaren: Button wanted to pass Alonso without using DRS
• Massa makes 100 Ferrari starts but no podium
• Ferrari: Alonso slips back on medium tyres
• Mercedes: Two-stop strategy leaves Rosberg vulnerable
• Force India: Sutil equals best result of the year

Image © Red Bull/Getty images

The design created by Linkin Park is to raise money for international aid for victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami through Music for Relief.

Vitantonio Liuzzi is also using a very unusual special helmet design for this race. Here’s what his team had to say about it:

“It is the seventh special edition designed this season by Kaos Design, but this new helmet is different to the rest and will be different to anything seen before in Formula 1. With a completely black base, the characteristic lines which Tonio has on his standard helmet will be drawn in white with the sponsors and VL logo written in golden leaves.

“The name of the helmet is ‘K-Writeme’ and it is covered in a material similar to that of a blackboard meaning that Tonio can write and erase what he wants on the surface until he is happy with the design.”

Here are pictures from Thursday at Interlagos.

F1 pictures

• Jerez test day three in pictures
• Jerez test day two in 100 pictures
• Red Bull RB8 seen for first time as Jerez test begins
• Williams FW34 launch: First pictures of their 2012 F1 car
• Toro Rosso STR7 - first pictures and video of Toro Rosso's 2012 F1 car
• Red Bull RB8 launch - first pictures and video of Red Bull's 2012 F1 car
• Sauber C31 launch - first pictures and video of Sauber's 2012 F1 car
• Ferrari F2012 launch - first pictures and video of Ferrari's 2012 F1 car
• McLaren MP4-27 launch - first pictures of McLaren's 2012 F1 car
• Kimi Raikkonen continues his F1 familiarisation in Valencia

View more F1 pictures

Images © Ferrari spa/Ercole Colombo, Renault/LAT, Getty Images/Red Bull, Force India/Sutton, Sauber F1 Team, Motioncompany