Toro Rosso on Thursday morning confirmed the immediate departure from the team of its French race driver Sebastien Bourdais.
"In Sebastien's second year with us, the partnership has not met our expectations and therefore we have decided to replace him as from the next round of the world championship, the Hungarian grand prix," said team boss Franz Tost.
It is widely expected that Red Bull's newly-appointed F1 reserve driver Jaime Alguersuari, a 19-year-old Spaniard, will be confirmed as 30-year-old Bourdais' replacement.
Toro Rosso said in a statement: "An announcement about (the) replacement will be made shortly before the Hungarian grand prix."
Prior to moving to F1 last year, Bourdais won four successive Champ Car championships in America between 2004 and 2007. In 2002, he won the F3000 title, which is the equivalent of today's GP2.
