Bourdais vs Alguersuari
It seems all but confirmed that Sebastien Bourdais has been dropped by Toro Rosso, the team seemingly waiting until after this weekend to announce that Spain’s Jaime Alguersuari (a name I’m going to be permanently having to copy and paste for the rest of the year) will be taking over – before that he has one last World Series by Renault race to look forward to at Le Mans.
So, Sebastien Bourdais? Or Jaime Alguersuari? Actually, before we get to that, I thought we’d better compare Bourdais to his team mate Buemi with the return of my patented ‘team mate swing-o-meter’:
The swing-o-meter, if you’ve never encountered it before, simply shows the relative performance between team mates in terms of qualifying position, fastest race lap, final race position and points scored (not a lot in Toro Rosso’s case). So if Bourdais finishes ahead of Buemi it swings towards Bourdais one step (or by points scored), swinging back again if Buemi beats his team mate in the next race. In Spain, I declared their first lap coming together as a no-score draw. Makes sense? Moving on…
At first glance it doesn’t make pretty reading for the Frenchman who has been comprehensively out-qualified by his rookie team mate. In the race, however, it’s been more or less honours even, although bear in mind that Buemi has had the benefit of better starting positions. So perhaps dropping Bourdais is a little harsh in itself but then nor has he put his rookie team mate in his place – Buemi is a project in development, Bourdais should be the finished article. Still, in my opinion, I think Bourdais deserved to see out the year, especially when you consider his replacement waiting in the wings.
So, who exactly is Jaime (copy, paste) Alguersuari besides having an irritatingly hard-to-spell name? Possibly, even Bourdais is asking that question, especially as he’s not been complimentary to the French man? Well, he’s currently the reigning British Formula Three champion which qualifies him for a Super License but as a Formula 1 driver his experience is, well, almost none existent.
“I truly believe that the decision by Red Bull is just, but it is never nice to see someone taken away after half a season” - Jaime Alguersuari speaks to Spanish Radio
He has driven a Formula 1 car though, Red Bull’s RB4 in May last year. Just don’t ask him about how different it feels under cornering as it was a straight-line test. The lack of in-season testing bites again!
Therefore, Alguersuari will have a baptism of fire in Hungary, a technically demanding circuit to test any driver. He will also become the youngest ever driver in Formula 1 at 19 years and 125 days. At least he’s driven the circuit before, World Series by Renault visiting Hungary a month ago. 16th place in the feature race hardly fills you with confidence though and he’s not exactly threatened Oliver Turvey, his team mate at Carlin Motorsport either.
Of course, Red Bull / Toro Rosso were able to tell everyone “we told you so” when doubts were raised about Sebastian Vettel, but even his CV looked a lot better than Alguersuari’s. I guess we’ll soon see but I can’t help thinking that this has more to do with money then either Alguersuari’s talent or even Bourdais’ lack of spark. Just look for the Repsol logos appearing on the Toro Rosso, if not in Hungary, from next year.
I like Bourdais but he has had his time and not been able to do anything.
Replacing him with an inexperienced 19yo is a strange move though … Obviously this has been in the planning for the last few weeks with Hartley recently stepping aside as reserve driver and suddenly the new reserve driver Jaime Alguersuari who just happens to have the financial and sponsorship backing, walks in the door and hey presto .. Bye bye Bourdais!
‘Tis all about the money in F1 … not the talent.
str8guy(Quote) (Reply)
Bourdais might not be the only casualty at Hungary … Briatore says he ‘doesn’t know who will be driving the 2nd Renault there either!
“”I don’t know,” he told AUTOSPORT when asked about if Piquet would be driving alongside Fernando Alonso at the Hungaroring. “Maybe I am in the car myself…”:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/76961
Now there’s a sight I’d love to see!
str8guy(Quote) (Reply)
When you see the results of the swing-o-meter it doesn’t look like Bourdais has faired too badly compaired to his team-mate and as you say, it’s his qualification position that let him down. It would be interesting to look back this season to see how they compaired with fuel loads in any races where they both made it through to Q3. Maybe that can give us some clues as to why he should be slower in quali, yet do better in terms of fastest laps.
Mav, you did the swing-o-meter graphs for all the drivers last season and the results were very interesting. Do you still have a link to those graphs so we can see how he did last year against Der Seb.
Incidentally, do you have plans to do the same feature again this season? it’s kinda cool and I like pictures
saltire(Quote) (Reply)
Toro Rosso in Q3? Are you mad?
Last year’s head-to-heads: http://www.pitlanefanatic.com/tmc.php
Le Seb and Der Seb were quite close for the first two-thirds of the year, Le Seb didn’t seem to like the new STR when it finally arrived.
I do plan to do them again this year, makes sense to first wait until there are enough races to make a reasonable comparison though. Maybe it’ll pass the time during the European Grand Prix?
Maverick(Quote) (Reply)
Told you I have the memory of a goldfish for the finer points. I’m just not that fussed about STR as a team .. sorry. I thought they might have got through early in the season when they seemed to be a bit more competitive.
saltire(Quote) (Reply)
Let’s see how they do with the full Red Bull update package, maybe they’ll get into Q3 then.
If they do, and maybe score points, how many people will say it’s the car that did it? And how many will say it’s the driver, using this as vindication of Bourdais’ exit?
Pitmonster(Quote) (Reply)
My money is on Jamie Cut ‘n’ Paste still being last on the grid (save penalties and anything odd happening such as somebody failing to set a time) even if Buemi climbs up the grid with his improvements.
Maverick(Quote) (Reply)
Rich, in his new blog F1centric has made an excellent post on records set by young drivers new to F1. It’s well worth a read. http://f1centric.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/teenage-f1-stars-will-jaime-be-one/
saltire(Quote) (Reply)
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