Over the last few days, the saga of Sebastien Bourdais' replacement by Jaime Alguersuari as a Toro Rosso F1 driver has progressed slowly from rumor to confirmed fact. As Le Seb mutters about suing the team over his broken contract, the rest of the world wonders at the wisdom of taking on such a young and inexperienced driver as Jaime midway through the season; his credentials are not exactly stellar, after all. And some have pondered the fate of Brendon Hartley, the young New Zealander who so recently left his position as STR test driver (although to say "driver" is perhaps an exaggeration in this day and age of no testing) and whose place was taken by Alguersuari.
Jaime Alguersuari
Brendon assures us that he wanted to concentrate on his racing in the lower formulae, rather than waste his time hanging around the Toro Rosso pit, and this makes a lot of sense. Indeed, he has known for some time that Alguersauari would get the drive and, although disappointed, he recognizes that it would have been too early for him to take a full-fledged F1 drive at this stage of his career.
That shows a lot of sense in a driver of Brendon's age; it is natural that all young drivers aspire to reach F1 as soon as possible and most would jump at the chance of a seat. Yet such apparent good fortune can turn bad very quickly and the sport's history is littered with those who entered too early and were found wanting. It is the occasional success that we remember, the Alonsos, Amons and Vettels, but we forget the ones that never made it and disappeared after a season or two.
Many of those young hopefuls drove for Minardi and it is interesting to go back through the years and note how few of the little team's drivers we remember now. In those days, Minardi was the accepted doorway into F1 where some sponsorship money could buy a drive and the wide-eyed aspirant could try to be noticed in a car that was never capable of winning. The names roll by with the years, only a few standing out as more famous now.
So it may be fitting that STR has rekindled Dietrich Mateschitz's original intention that the team should be a first step into F1 for drivers from Red Bull's talent-nurturing process. There is no secret made of the fact that it was Alguesuari's status as the next in line on the Red Bull production line that gained him the job (although he does bring money too, apparently). Good luck to him, say I, as he steps into the fire of an F1 baptism; he will need it if he is to succeed.
He does have the advantage of taking over the car just as it receives its long-awaited improvements. Many are expecting that a double diffuser and other aerodynamic tweaks will transform the car in Hungary and that is quite possible, given that Red Bull have made the same basic design into a winner. But it remains to be seen.
Indeed, it may be that Hartley was even more circumspect than he realizes. Franz Tost is not renowned for his ability to encourage drivers that are struggling and, although he says that miracles are not expected from Jaime in his first three races, I would not be surprised if the young Spaniard finds that his welcome soon sours if he does not produce the goods in short order. Remembering that Vettel had already made his mark as a golden boy in his one race for BMW, no driver without previous F1 experience has done particularly well at STR.
Sebastian Buemi has shown well against Bourdais and hence the Frenchman's early departure, but he has yet to prove that he is anything special. Beating a guy whose recent experience was in the very different world of Champ Car racing is all very well but it is still hard to assess Buemi's true ability. Perhaps Alguesuari will give us more of a yardstick.
That is the one thing that would give Alguersuari some credibility - beating a team mate who has been in the car longer. It is unlikely to happen, however, even though Buemi seems to be evidence that F1 experience is not essential to give a good account of oneself. In all probability, we are looking at a return to the old Minardi tradition of new drivers trying their hand one after the other and soon fading into history and oblivion.
Having a team that introduces young drivers to the sport is a nice idea but means that it is hard to assess a newcomer when his competition is also untested. It would be better policy for STR to have a resident but proven old timer like Coulthard or Barrichello in one seat while the other goes to Red Bull's latest young hopeful. That would retain the extensive knowledge of the older driver and allow the younger time and the opportunity to learn.
But that is probably far too sensible a strategy for the modern hothouse that is F1...