Big news today folks – Jaime Alguersuari is to take up the role of F1 pundit for BBC 5LiveF1.

He’s taking up the position of co-commentator alongside Jonathan Legard and James Allen who will be sharing the chief commentator role throughout the season.  Unlike the BBC F1 TV crew, 5LiveF1 will be covering every race live, so if you’re in the ‘no to Sky’ crew, you can still listen to every race live.

Despite having their entire on-air seemingly poached by Sky, having Jonathan Legard and James Allen and now Jaime Alguersuari we’re sure that the Formula 1 coverage on 5LiveF1 will continue to be as strong as is it was in 2011.  If you’re not already, you should follow them on Twitter too @5LiveF1

5 Things you may not have known about Jaime Alguersuari…

  • Four years to Formula 1 – from Italian Formula 1600 series in 2005 to F1 in 2009.
  • The first F1 driver to be born in the nineties.
  • The youngest F1 driver to start a grand prix in history at the 2009 Hungarian GP.
  • He won the 2011 Desafio Internacional das Estrelas – Massa’s charity kart event.
  • Jamie is also a popular DJ on the house music scene by night (and, if reports from our younger readers are anything to go by, well in to the next morning).  You can preview and buy his music on Amazon here or check out one of his sets below… his DJ name is DJ Squire.

His F1 Career

Yes, he’s had a great couple of years in Formula 1, and along with most people in F1, here at Badger GP we were shocked to hear of him and Sebastian Buemi losing their seats for 2012.  While Buemi has taken up the role of reserve driver at Red Bull, Jaime has been left without a seat in F1 at all.  Here are few facts about Jaime that you may not already know…

He stood up to Helmut Marko – as shown in the official F1 review of the year DVD.  When running ahead of Vettel in practice for the 2011 Korean GP, he was to be ‘getting in the way’ which didn’t impress Mr Marko…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB8MpgDnDQw

Algueruari was parachuted in to the Toro Rosso team mid-way through 2009 to replace the struggling and permanently grumpy Sebastien Bourdias. With no testing it was a tough gig, and Jaime was retained for 2010 almost as an apology for the task the team had given him the previous year.

2010 saw him build his experience and, by the end of the year, look a better long-term bet than team-mate Sebastien Buemi He subsequently got some encouraging words from boss Franz Tost:  “I’m looking forward to next season because I think [Jaime] has matured enough to continue improving himself,” said Tost. “He still needs a good car, and then I’m convinced he can do an even better job.”

Sadly, maybe in part due to his conversation with Helmut Marko, 2011 would be his last season with Toro Rosso… for now at least.

Pretty Photos

Jaime was popular amongst the female F1 fans for his good looks and well, bonus points for being a DJ and and F1 driver made him very attractive to the ladies, so here’s a collection of photos of the young lad.