Bruno Senna, Jaime Alguersuari deny reports of their speculated 2012 team links – Formula 1 news
Bruno Senna and Jaime Alguersuari both have denied reports of the duo being in contention for a race seat with Williams and Hispania Racing Team respectively.
Senna was part of the Renault team in 2011 and is amongst many other drivers looking for race seats for the 2012 season. Adrian Sutil and Rubens Barrichello are two who have been named to be in links with the Williams race seat.
Williams are still in the hunt of a driver for their available race seat but it seems that they too are going the way HRT is going and looking for a pay driver as Williams’ lost a $4.5 million sponsorship deal with AT&T.
“Despite some rumours, my situation remains the same as before,” said Senna on his Facebook page. “In other words, I am still not confirmed with any team so I'm still battling for a place in F1.”
Alguersuari was racing for Toro Rosso and was surprisingly dropped for the upcoming 2012 season. Sebastien Buemi suffered the same fate as his teammate Alguersuari and both the drivers expressed their shock at the news. The duo had been performing fairly
well for their teams.
Toro Rosso had maintained that the decision was not taken over the performances of their drivers, but to promote Red Bull’s young driver program. Toro Rosso have since announced Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo for the 2012 season.
Both Vergne and Ricciardo have come through the young driver program. Alguersuari mentioned that he does not want to blame Red Bull over the decision although it is a big blow for him but it is something that has helped him as well. As he said that he too
got the opportunity to race in Formula 1 because of the young driver programme setup by Red Bull.
Alguersuari was overlooked for Red Bull’s third driver role as well, and though he still has an option of getting the third driver role for a few teams.
Alguersuari was interviewed by Sports daily AS and according to them, “Jaime still has options to be third driver in one of the top teams,” said AS, who also quoted Alguersuari as saying the move would represent “a backwards step for his career.”
The future of both the drivers still looms unclear, as the duo still need to secure a race seat or a reserve driver role with one of the F1 teams.
Tags: