Toro Rosso will confirm tomorrow that the Frenchman Sébastien Bourdais has left the team, with Jaime Alguersuari poised to become the youngest driver in Formula One history.
Since entering into Formula One after winning four successive ChampCar titles in the United States from 2004-2007, Bourdais has struggled, winning just six points from the 27 grands prix in which he competed.
Bourdais was overshadowed last year by Sebastian Vettel, who provided a largely uncompetitive team with victory in last season's Italian grand prix. This season Bourdais again found himself second best to the Swiss rookie Sébastien Buemi, who out-qualified his more experienced team-mate in seven of the season's nine races thus far.
In his last race for Toro Rosso, Bourdais was forced to retire from the German grand prix at the Nürburgring yesterday with a hydraulic failure. Although the Toro Rosso team principal, Franz Tost, refused to confirm Bourdais's departure after the race, the reserve and test driver Alguersuari is expected to replace him for the rest of the season.
Alguersuari is the British Formula Three champion and another product of the Red Bull young driver development programme. The Spaniard will take his place in the record books at the Hungarian grand prix in a fortnight by becoming the sport's youngest driver at the age of 19 years and 126 days, which would beat the New Zealander Mike Thackwell's record by 57 days set in the 1980 Canadian grand prix.
Since entering into Formula One after winning four successive ChampCar titles in the United States from 2004-2007, Bourdais has struggled, winning just six points from the 27 grands prix in which he competed.
Bourdais was overshadowed last year by Sebastian Vettel, who provided a largely uncompetitive team with victory in last season's Italian grand prix. This season Bourdais again found himself second best to the Swiss rookie Sébastien Buemi, who out-qualified his more experienced team-mate in seven of the season's nine races thus far.
In his last race for Toro Rosso, Bourdais was forced to retire from the German grand prix at the Nürburgring yesterday with a hydraulic failure. Although the Toro Rosso team principal, Franz Tost, refused to confirm Bourdais's departure after the race, the reserve and test driver Alguersuari is expected to replace him for the rest of the season.
Alguersuari is the British Formula Three champion and another product of the Red Bull young driver development programme. The Spaniard will take his place in the record books at the Hungarian grand prix in a fortnight by becoming the sport's youngest driver at the age of 19 years and 126 days, which would beat the New Zealander Mike Thackwell's record by 57 days set in the 1980 Canadian grand prix.
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