Sebastien Bourdais, rumored to be on thin ice heading into last weekend’s German Grand Prix, is set to be replaced by Red Bull reserve driver Jaime Alguersuari in Hungary.
AUTOSPORT says an announcement will be made in 48 hours. It also speculates the young Spaniard may benefit from Repsol.
Multiple sources say Bourdais was told after qualifying 20th Saturday at the Nurburgring his services would no longer be needed after Sunday’s race.
That may have been the explanation for the Frenchman’s hugging of teammembers following his departure from the race after a hydraulics failure.
According to ITV-F1, however, Bourdais told French broadcaster TF1 he has a contract in place and will be in Hungary.
The team Web site, as of this posting, is still touting the four time Champ Car champion as one of its drivers.
Sources say due to the lack of testing, STR want to get the young Spaniard time behind the wheel of an F1 car in preparation for a full season in 2010.
Alguersuari, British F3 champion, would be the youngest F1 driver in history at 19 years and 125 days. He replaced Brendon Hartley as third driver for RBR/STR at the beginning of the month.
Willis leaves Red Bull
Red Bull Technical Director Geoff Willis has left the team after his position was eliminated.
Willis, who made a name for himself at BAR before being let go by Honda, was reunited with Adrian Newey at Red Bull, whom he had worked with in the 90s.
According to sources, Willis is often credited as the man who makes Newey’s designs work reliably on the track. Interesting timing, considering Red Bull’s sudden surge as a title contender.
A young driver backed by Repsol, a high level position being made redundant? Pure conjecture here, but the underlying thread in both of these RBR/STR moves could be money.
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