London: Spaniard Jaime Alguersuari and Swiss driver Sebastien Buemi will stay with Toro Rosso next season, the Formula One team said on Thursday.
"I believe our drivers will be well prepared for 2011, which is why they are both confirmed for next year," team principal Franz Tost said in a preview for next week's German Grand Prix at Hockenheim.
"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."
Updates in pipeline
Buemi, now in his second full season at the Red Bull-owned team, has scored seven points in 10 races this year. Alguersuari, who made his debut in Hungary last July, has twice finished in the points and has three.
Toro Rosso are ninth of the 12 teams, five points behind Sauber and 21 adrift of Williams.
Tost said the Ferrari-powered team had to improve in every area.
"In terms of the car itself, we are introducing some updates over these next two races, starting with a new front wing in Hockenheim, then a new diffuser in Hungary," he said.
"Other updates are in the pipeline and I am therefore convinced that car performance will improve, starting with next weekend."
He expected to see a step-up in Alguersuari's performances from Hungary later this month, with the Spaniard returning to familiar circuits.
Design work had already started on the 2011 car but the current one would continue to be developed.
"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," said Tost.
Vacancy: Villeneuve bids for F1 return in 2011
Former world champion Jacques Villeneuve is bidding for a return to the Formula One pit lanes at the head of his own team, the German car magazine Auto Motor und Sport reported on Thursday.
The Canadian, who won the championship in 1997, has applied for his team Villeneuve Racing to take the 13th slot in the F1 roster in 2011.
Villeneuve Racing, whose financial backers have not been revealed, is one of three teams trying to win the place that has been left vacant since the American team USF1 went bankrupt. The American group Cypher is one of the others with the third team unnamed.
After winning the championship with Williams in 1997, Villeneuve's Formula One career went into a tailspin. He didn't win another race in the next nine seasons before he quit BMW Sauber in 2006. He made an unsuccessful move into Nascar and for the last year has set his sights on a return to Formula One.
The FIA, the sport's governing body, is expected to make a decision on the 13th team by the end of July.
— AFP
