JULY 16, 2010

Buemi and Alguersuari retained by Toro Rosso

Toro Rosso team boss Franz Tost has confirmed that Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari will again form the team line-up in 2011.

Toro Rosso team boss Franz Tost has confirmed that Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari will again form the team line-up in 2011.

"I believe they will be well prepared for 2011," Tost said, "and it is also logical because one key role of Toro Rosso is to bring on young drivers from the Red Bull Young Driver programme and, at the ages of 21 and 20 respectively, both Seb and Jaime certainly still meet the right criteria."

Buemi has finished in the points three times this season, his best result being an eighth place in Montreal, and currently has seven points, while Alguersuari has two scores to his credit, in Malaysia and Barcelona, and has three points.

Says Tost: "Our drivers still lack F1 experience compared to the majority of their colleagues and therefore, as they get more track time with every race, I expect to see an improvement in the second half of the season. This is particularly relevant to Alguersuari because from Hungary onwards he will be able to rely on the knowledge he picked up after making his debut there in 2009, knowing all the remaining tracks with the exception of Korea. It is also true that their understanding and engineering feedback improves, which is vital if we are to get the most out of our package."

Toro Rosso is due to introduce some updates over the next two races, a front wing in Hockenheim, then a new diffuser in Hungary. The team is currently ninth in the constructors' championship, with only the new teams behind, but has targeted eighth by season's end. The closest target is Sauber, five points in front. The team, which is a constructor in its own right this season, will then have to concentrate on developing the existing car and preparing a new chassis for 2011.

"That's another new and interesting challenge for us," Tost admits. "The design group has been split, with part of it already working on the 2011 car, including starting wind tunnel work, which is a first given that our Bicester wind tunnel was not fully validated this time last year and therefore was not able to contribute much to the basic design of the 2010 car. Another part of the design group is still working on developing new specifications for this year's car.

"Our resources are limited when compared to the teams ahead of us in the championship but we have no plans to increase our manpower, as the F1 regulations are moving towards capping the size of the workforce in the future and while our size might be a disadvantage at the moment, it could become a positive factor in the future."