With the new Formula 1 season less than two months away Scuderia Toro Rosso has announced that Jaime Alguersuari, who joined the Faenza-based outfit mid-last year, will continue with the team for a second year. With Sebastien Buemi already confirmed by the team it means that Toro Rosso will start the year with an unchanged line-up. The Spanish youngster became the youngest-ever F1 driver last season, at 19 years of age and 125 days, breaking Mike Thackwell's long-standing record, when he was drafted in to replace Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais who was sacked by the Red Bull-owned team.

Alguersuari is a product of the Red Bull junior driver programme, he rose through the ranks to win the British F3 Championship in 1988 to become the youngest-ever winner of this prestigious junior feeder series, and with the blanket ban on in-season grand prix testing that came in last year the Spaniard was thrust into an F1 weekend without having the benefit of gaining any testing mileage behind the wheel of the Ferrari V8-powered STR4. Many of the circuits were new to him, and the Toro Rosso team lost its way last year, but he did a steady if unspectacular job. In his eight races he achieved a 14th, 15th and 16th spot along with five retirements.