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Toro Rosso to stick with drivers in 2011

Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi will be kept on at Toro Rosso next year © Sutton Images

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• Drivers:
• Jaime Alguersuari
• |
• Sébastien Buemi
• |
• Franz Tost

• Teams:
• Toro Rosso

Toro Rosso plan to retain Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi as its race drivers in 2011.

The pair joined the team last year, although Alguersuri later than Buemi, and boss Franz Tost is pleased with their progress.

"I believe our drivers will be well prepared for 2011, which is why they are both confirmed for next year," Tost said. It is also logical, because one key role of Scuderia Toro Rosso is to bring on young drivers from the Red Bull Young Driver programme and at the ages of 21 and 20 respectively, both Seb and Jaime certainly still meet the right criteria."

"Our drivers still lack F1 experience compared to the majority of their colleagues. Therefore, as they get more track time with every race, I expect to see an improvement in the final half of the season. This is particularly relevant to Alguersuari, because from Hungary onwards, he will be able to rely on the knowledge he picked up after making his debut there in 2009, knowing all the remaining tracks, with the exception of Korea. It is not just a case of their driving getting better, because it is also true that their understanding and engineering feedback improves, which is vital if we are to get the most out of our package."

Tost added that he expects to score more points in the second half of the season in order to reach Toro Rosso's target of finishing eighth in the constructors' championship.

"I expect a combination of car updates and improved performance from the drivers and indeed the whole team to bring us more points in what remains of the season," he said.

"Why could we not do this earlier? It's quite simply a matter of resources, in that we are a small team and even in this high-tech age, without the people to generate and drive the technology forward, not just in terms of production but also design and development, you cannot improve.

"We have not fixed a cut off date when development of the STR5 will stop and, while working on the STR6, if we come up with some solutions that we feel could benefit this year's car and we have the resources and capacity to produce new parts, then we will introduce them on STR5. It would also mean we are effectively testing for 2011 this season."

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