Scuderia Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost has said that he does not expect ‘anything’ from Jaime Alguersuari, whom the team unveiled today as Sebastien Bourdais’ replacement.
The statement will come as a relief to Alguersuari, who many think could struggle to adapt to F1 after only having F3 and Renault World Series experience so far in his career. But Tost said that at least for the first three races he would not be putting any pressure on the young Catalan, seeing as the test ban prohibits him from running outside races.
Tost said: â€I am well aware that over the next few months the team and Jaime will face a major challenge, especially because of the testing ban. But Red Bull is always ready for a new challenge. I do not expect anything from him for at least his first three races, during which he has to get used to the car, the team and to the Formula 1 environment.â€
For his part Alguersuari sounded confident and paid tribute to the team.
“I am aware that I m facing a very tough challenge, because coming into Formula 1 is never easy, coming into Formula 1 in the middle of a season is even harder and doing so without any testing is really difficult. But already I feel that I am getting great support from the team, who have quite a reputation for looking after rookie drivers,†he said.