A Red Bull driver sacked in a brutally-short phone call still doesn't understand why he was dropped. While Sergio Perez, who endured a wretched 2024 season, has become the latest driver to be culled by Red Bull, he was far from the first to suffer such a fate, and he probably won’t be the last. While Perez could have had a few complaints, many others over the years have arguably been harshly treated, such as Jaime Alguersuari.
The Spanish racer, now a DJ and music producer, once held the crown of F1's youngest driver. He made his debut for Toro Rosso – the name of Red Bull’s junior team at the time – at the age of just 19 years and 125 days in 2009. That particular record now belongs to Max Verstappen, who made his debut for the same team at the age of just 17 in 2015.
Alguersuari spent three seasons in F1 from 2009 to 2011, scoring 31 points across 46 races. In his final season, he often exceeded expectations, earning 25 of the team's 41 points. Those displays led him to believe he would be promoted to the main team. As a result, he turned down a move to the Lotus team, who were a race-winning outfit in 2012 with Kimi Raikkonen.
However, Mark Webber’s decision to stay in F1 for one more season left Alguersuari with nowhere to go. He told the Daily Star in 2023: "The [2011] season went really well, but I didn’t sign the contract because it seemed obvious that, having been with Red Bull for six years – for me, it was obvious, anyway – that doing what we were doing, beating my team-mate and getting the car into the top eight consistently, it was good enough to secure my place at Red Bull seat in 2012, because we thought Mark Webber was leaving.".
