Toro Rosso in Shock Driver Announcement
by Adam Milleneuve with others, on Dec 14th, 2011Gosh, Woah, Blimey, WTF - out of nowhere, not even on the rumour mill, Toro Rosso have decided to drop both Sebastian Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari for 2012. In their place, Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne will drive the Toro Rosso cars.
Jaime Alguersuari exits the 2011 Belgian GP, the last Belgian GP he would drive for Toro Rosso - credit: OctanePhotos.co.uk
Ricciardo has been a Red Bull protege for a long time and somewhat proven himself as much as possible in the HRT car during 2011 and as for Vergne, well there more hype around him than Sebastian Vettel has fingers.
We referred to the rather bonkers 'Magic Roundabout' of driver changes last week, but along with pretty much everyone else, assumed that Toro Rosso would remain the same for 2012, with neither driver performing any worse than the other - seems now that Helmut Marko saw this in a different light - i.e. neither driver impressed enough to warrant a seat for 2012. Really hope he doesn't expect every young bright star to win at Monza in the rain...
Ricciardo will have plenty more time behind the wheel of the Toro Rosso in 2012 - credit: octanephotos.co.uk
Anyhow, this leaves Petrov, Barrichello and the like with even less options, with only Williams and Team Lotus yet to confirm who'll be driving their motors for 2012. Ok, so Force India haven't confirmed yet, but it's more than common belief that it will be Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg taking the team forward next season - the official announcement is due on Thursday 15th December.
So what do we think folks? Do you care, if not, why not and if you do (you should) then what are you thoughts on Toro Rosso's shock announcement?
Let us know in the comments below.
Comments and Discussion
I saw it coming. Jean Eric Vern has been sitting on the sidelines waiting to pounce and is too good a driver to not allow in, and as for Ricciardo, he seems decent too. What it comes down to, they need to find a replacement for Webber. Neither Buemi or Alguersuari have had that kind of raw driving race pace that Red Bull deem necessary, so why leave them in the car when they could try out some other guys?
It seems a remarkably odd decision. I can understand dropping Buemi, but Alguersuari was improving all the time and had a very strong end to last season; so much for 'developing young talent' - it appears instead that Toro Rosso finish off their careers by age 21. Equally, by replacing both drivers where is the yardstick to measure Vergne and Ricciardo against? If they qualify, say, 14th and 15th next year how do we know if they are any better than the men they replaced?
Far from being a talent academy, this team appear to be career-killers - 5 of their 6 drivers have now been unceremoniously dumped, after receiving precious little support from the likes of Marko and Tost. It appears that you *do* have to win at Monza in the rain, then to win favour with this lot. Be warned, Daniel and Eric....
Think I was nearly as shocked as Algersuari with this! Toro Rosso is definitely a career killer drive! I don't think either Buemi or Algesuari did that badly last season with the car they had and as DRGary said, there's no yardstick there to see how the new men are doing... Not a clever move in my eyes...
Very surprised. Alguersuari in particular did well this season - two back-of-grid to points drives, and finishing ahead of Nico Rosberg at one point too.
I can't believe it! Alguersuari qualified in 6th in one race and i remember him overtaking the experienced Rosberg! I hope Hulkenberg does race for Force India, he has real talent
Anyone think Alguersuari could move to HRT? Two Spanish drivers would be a good line up for the team and he is definitely fast enough and has sufficient experience. One experienced development driver and a young up and coming talent. Here's an article about it http://www.inautonews.com/alguersuari-quiet-as-spaniards-eye-hrt-option
Fair play to Toro Rosso for injecting youth into this season's grid. I don't think Cepsa (or whatever the Spanish company that sponsors them is called) are going to be too happy though.
The shock of it all is down to the fact that both drivers have worked hard to take the team from essentially the drawing board to challenging for regular points each race - and then cut loose to further their young driver program. I suppose you can't be a young driver forever!
Toro Rosso don't really exist to succeed though, they exist to develop drivers. That's what the top brass at RB want and being as they pay the bills that's what they get. I think they'd be happier with a season spent at the back of the grid in which one driver puts in a string of stunning performances to regular points with decent drivers, which is what they got this year. I'm not by any means guaranteeing Ricciardo or JEV will be revelations, but Red bull have to take the risk. Vettel would make both Buemi and Alguersuari look stupid if they were his team-mate.
I also think we need to assume there was feedback coming from STR that these guys, regardless of points scored, weren't A-grade material. Coming home eighth is one thing, but were they leading the team? What was their feedback like? Had they reached a visible plateau in these and other areas? I'm sure they went way, way deeper than just looking at the championship standings when they made this decision. As Craig says, STR have a Spanish sponsor on the car and Alguersuari's dad is rich and well connected enough to pump cash in if needs be, so I'd say this was a sporting decision rather than a commercial one.