Scuderia Toro Rosso
Constructors’ championship 2010: 9th
West Australian reserve driver Daniel Ricciardo is waiting in the wings and will drive on Fridays in practice for the team starting at Albert Park. With Red Bull motorsport consultant Dr Helmut Marko saying in the off-season that he wants Ricciardo to be in F1 by 2012 “at the latest”, the pressure is on young driver pairing Alguersuari and Buemi to step up their performances.
Toro Rosso’s speed in off-season testing was an eye-opener, and veteran technical chief Giorgio Ascanelli hopes that the second year for the team as a constructor in its own right can see an improvement on last year’s haul of 13 points.
18 Sébastien Buemi (age 22, Swiss, 36 Grand Prix starts)
Buemi had his moments last year – he led the race for a lap in Canada where he finished a season-best eighth – but his 2010 campaign was best remembered for a massive 300km/h shunt in China where the front suspension broke under braking and sent both front wheels skywards. Finished in the points on his F1 debut here in 2009 when he came seventh.
2010 season: 8 points, 16th – best result eighth in Canada.
19 Jaime Alguersuari (age 21, Spanish, 27 Grand Prix starts)
Alguersuari finished the 2010 season strongly, out-qualifying his more experienced teammate in the last five races and earning two of his five points for the year in the season finale in Abu Dhabi. Jaime, who turns 21 on the Wednesday leading into the Australian Grand Prix, was 11th in his Albert Park debut last season.
2010 season: 5 points, 19th – best result ninth in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi.
STR6, powered by Ferrari engines for the fifth consecutive season.