‘Red Bull sacked me in one minute phone call — and I still don’t understand why’

Jaime Alguersuari has revealed how he was let go by Red Bull in a brutal one minute phone call – and that he still doesn't understand why, even to this day.

Alguersuari previously held the crown of F1's youngest driver, making his debut for Toro Rosso aged just 19 years and 125 days in 2009. That record now belongs to Max Verstappen, who made his first start at the age of 17.

And while Verstappen already has two drivers' championship titles to his name – with a third very much on the way – Alguersuari has been left wondering what might have been. Now a professional DJ and music producer, the multi-talented Spaniard spent three years in F1 from 2009 to 2011, scoring 31 points across 46 races.

But that doesn't tell the whole story. Particularly in his final season at Toro Rosso – these days called Alpha Tauri – Alguersuari regularly outperformed expectations on the grid, picking up 25 of the team's 41 points across the season.

READ MORE: 'I raced against Michael Schumacher in F1 – now I'm a DJ with dreams of Glastonbury'

Alguersuari thought that his impressive displays would be rewarded with a promotion to the senior team. Such was his belief, he even turned down a contract to join newly-formed Lotus, who would go on to finish fourth in the constructors' standings in 2012.

It proved to be a mistake that would ultimately cost Alguersuari his F1 career.

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"I had a contract that was ending with Red Bull at the end of that season," Alguersuari exclusively tells Daily Star Sport in a chat that took place before the start of the 2023 F1 season.

"Two months before the end of the season, I was asked by Lotus to drive for them in 2012 and become Kimi Raikkonen’s team-mate."

That offer came about as a result of Alguersuari's impressive performances on the grid, including a memorable seventh-place finish in Hungary. "From the seventh or eighth race onwards we were able to score consistently good points," he continues.

"It was probably the best period of my racing career. I had this extra confidence and support from the rest of grid. I was a driver in a car that struggled initially, but we started scoring points and beating world champions like Michael Schumacher in teams that had a much bigger budget than us.

"The 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."

Webber ultimately decided to stay on with Red Bull for another 12 months, a decision Alguersuari wasn't overly happy with at the time. It made the Spaniard's decision not to join Lotus look like even more of an error, with the star admitting himself it was a "big mistake."

And while he remains full of praise for Red Bull in the way they helped his racing career progress, the way the partnership ended leaves a bitter taste for the 33-year-old.

"Without Red Bull I would never have had the chance to be in F1. None of the drivers that are racing for Red Bull would have had that chance without them. That is crystal clear. But what is also crystal clear is the way they sacked me and my-team was not the way they should have done it.

"They waited until the very last minute of the season to do that." Alguersuari claims that Red Bull 'wanted to make sure' that he and team-mated Sebastien Buemi, who remained with the main team as a test driver, 'had no other chances to go anywhere else.'

"That hurt a lot because it was the end of my career," Alguersuari adds. "I had talks with other teams, but they were asking for money which we didn’t have. That hurt a lot because I did the job asked of me. I always thought 'if you get beaten by your team-mate, if you don’t perform, you should leave'.

"But if you’re putting a car that isn’t supposed to be in the points in the points, and you’re consistently beating your team-mate and beating world champions, it’s crystal clear that you deserve that chance."

At this point, Alguersuari opens up on the brutal nature of his departure from Red Bull. "It was a very quick phone call lasting just one minute. It was a very tough thing, and I didn’t understand why. I still don’t understand why even today.

"The thing is, the two drivers who came after us [Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne] didn't beat our results. They upgraded one of them [Ricciardo] to Red Bull and he then came third in the world championship. I understand how F1 works, but I don’t really want to buy how they decided this, because it was not a sporting decision.

"They played their cards, and I wasn’t smart enough to move out at the right time. I did have an opportunity to move in Abu Dhabi in 2011 – that was the contract I needed to sign – and that was the only opportunity I had to sign that contract. I didn’t sign it because I wanted to be faithful to the people who had helped me since I was 15."

Alguersuari remained in F1 for two more years as a test driver for Pirelli, but a return to the frontline of the sport never materialised.

"It was an unfortunate situation, but I don’t regret anything," a smiling Alguersuari says. "It has been 10 or 11 years now. I’m happy with what they gave me, because I had this amazing adventure. It hurt for a couple of years, and it was hard, but here I am now.

"I make music, I travel going into clubs and meeting new people and this is the person who I am. I don’t regret anything."

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