Alguersuari ousted following the Korea incident?
Jaime Alguersuari was not retained by the Toro Rosso team for 2012, and according to the Spanish press, this follows the verbal clash he had with Helmut Marko in South Korea.
Since the ousting of Jaime Alguersuari, the Spanish press has been trying to understand why the Barcelona native was not retained in the Toro Rosso team—Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne having been preferred over Alguersuari and Buemi. And the newspaper ABC believes it has a clue: Alguersuari was allegedly ousted for refusing a reproach from Helmut Marko, the head of Red Bull’s young driver program.
A little flashback, during the practice sessions of the South Korean Grand Prix, Jaime Alguersuari held up Sebastian Vettel while both men were conducting their own tests. Helmut Marko did not appreciate Alguersuari’s attitude and came to tell him so in the Toro Rosso garage.
According to *ABC,* which obtained a video that can be seen below, Helmut Marko did not appreciate that Jaime Alguersuari did not accept his criticism and then asked if he should also let all the competitors on a fast lap pass. According to the Spanish publication, it was from this moment that Alguersuari’s future with Red Bull in F1 became uncertain.
Remains to be seen whether this was the real trigger for Alguersuari’s non-renewal at Toro Rosso or if it added to performances considered too average during his two and a half years with the Italian team.
