Toro Rosso replaces Sébastien Bourdais with Jaime Alguersuari

Frenchman Sébastien Bourdais has left Toro Rosso and the team will replace him with a promising teenager Jaime Alguersuari. He is just 19 years old, and now will become the youngest driver in the Formula one history.

Photo: Jaime Alguersuari, new Toro Rosso F1 driver

Sébastien Bourdais has not been performing as expected in the Toro Rosso Formula One team. Prior to his introduction to the Formula one, Bourdais had won four successive ChampCar titles for USA from 2004-2007. However in F1, he only managed 6 points from a total of 27 Grand Prixs.

In the latest race for Toro Rosso, Sebastien Bourdais was forced to retire after a hydraulic failure at Nürburgring yesterday. Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost has not confirmed the Frenchman’s departure from the race but it is very likely that the test and reserve driver Alguersuari will replace him.

In th last season and this one up till now, Sebastian Vettel and Sebastien Buemi, his Toro Rosso team-mates completely overshadowed Bourdais.

“He’s a very good driver but it looks like this year he hasn’t given it his all like he’s supposed to give. I sincerely believe that Red Bull’s decision is just, but it’s never good to see someone taken off the team halfway through the season,” said Jaime Alguersuari, a 19-year-old Spanish reserve driver.

Alguersuari is the British Formula three champion and he graduated from Red Bull young driver development programme. When Jaime Alguersuari takes part in the Hungarian Grand Prix, he will be just 19 years and 126 days old.

Jaime Alguersuari will now enter the record books as the youngest driver in Formula One ever, displacing Mike Thackwell who raced in the 1980 Canadian Grand Prix who was just 2 months older than Alguersuari’s current age. Lewis Hamilton is the youngest Formula One champion so far; will Jaime able to do something similar?