Toro Rosso expects to retain drivers

Date published : 14 Sep 2009 - 15:03:49

Toro Rosso is likely to retain Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari for 2010, according to team boss Franz Tost. Although the final decision on the squad's drivers will be taken by parent company Red Bull, Tost believes the plan is for the rookie duo to stay on and continue to build experience with the junior team. "In the end it's the decision of Red Bull but it wouldn't have made sense to bring both young drivers into the team if you didn't continue with them for next year," said Tost. "I must say that they have both improved their performances from race weekend to race weekend. "We are happy with the drivers." Buemi graduated from GP2 to the Toro Rosso seat this year and made a fine start to his Formula 1 career with points finishes in Australia and China, although his form has since dipped as the team struggled to keep up with the pack. British Formula 3 champion Alguersuari replaced Sebastien Bourdais from the Hungarian Grand Prix and despite having only completed straightline tests prior to his GP debut, he has earned the paddock's respect with sensible performances and some promising times. Tost expects both drivers to get better and better - although he believes it might be two years before they really blossom. "I'm convinced that Red Bull and Toro Rosso can reap the fruits from the middle of next year onwards and especially in 2011," he said. Next year will mark a major change for Toro Rosso as it must take responsibility for its own chassis for the first time having previously shared technology with Red Bull Racing - but Tost said the step up to full constructor status was currently on target. "It's going quite well," he reported. "We are building up the engineering team around our technical director Giorgio Ascanelli. "We have a chief designer, Ben Butler, and so far they have already started on next year's car. "We are running the wind tunnel in England, at Bicester, and also our CFD department is increasing and so far are we are within our planned schedule."