Sebastien Buemi will continue to drive for Toro Rosso into 2010, the Faenza-based squad has confirmed.
The 21-year-old Swiss enjoyed an impressive rookie season in Formula 1 this year, scoring six of STR’s eight points and claiming all of the team’s three Q3 appearances.
Buemi has now become the first driver to be signed up by Toro Rosso for next season, although its other young gun Jaime Alguersuari is also expected to be retained.
“For the moment, the only confirmed driver to drive for Scuderia Toro Rosso in 2010 is Sebastien Buemi,” a Toro Rosso spokeswoman said. ITV
The outfit are yet to name their second driver, although Spanish 19-year-old Jaime Alguersuari is expected to remain at the Ferrari-powered team after replacing Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais in July.
“Dietrich Mateschitz bought this team to give young drivers a chance, and this is our philosophy,” team principal Franz Tost said.
“We have to stick to this philosophy, and I’m quite confident that from the middle of next year onwards we will have a good driver line-up, because then Alguersuari will know all the tracks, and Buemi is increasing his performance already.” Sky Sports
“The last few races were quite good. Alguersuari is also improving his performance, and so far I’m quite optimistic about the future.”
Buemi’s best results were two seventh places, earned in the first race of the season in Australia and the penultimate grand prix in Brazil.
Despite that, neither Buemi nor Alguesuari were able to match Toro Rosso’s performances of 2008, when Sebastian Vettel won the Italian Grand Prix in the middle of a superb run of form in the second half of the season.
Tost said he was not worried about the pair’s propensity for crashes in the final few races of the season.
“The crashes are part of the game,” he said. “A young driver needs to find the limit of the car. I call it the ‘crash period’, and it’s as important in this learning process and gaining experience as anything else.
“Therefore for me it’s obvious that a driver sometimes has to crash. If he is a young driver he has to learn the limit of the car - I don’t have a problem with this.” BBC Sport
