Teens enter frame for Alguersuari's F1 seat

Another driver has entered the frame at Toro Rosso, after the Italian team confirmed this week that Jaime Alguersuari has not yet been signed for the 2010 season.

The Red Bull-owned team has inked a new contract with the impressive Swiss rookie Sebastien Buemi, amid confirmation that the New Zealand youngster Brendon Hartley will test a Toro Rosso at Jerez in December.

Driving for Red Bull Racing at Jerez will be Australian Daniel Ricciardo, the new British F3 champion.

Only drivers with less than 3 grands prix under their belts are eligible for the young driver test, and it emerges that 19-year-old Mirko Bortolotti has been lined up to accompany Hartley, also 19, and Ricciardo at the Spanish circuit.

Italian Bortolotti, who will test for Toro Rosso, made headlines last winter when he broke the Fiorano lap record while testing with Ferrari as a reward for winning the Italian F3 series.

He finished this year's F2 championship in fourth place, and earlier in 2009 was linked with injured Felipe Massa's Ferrari race seat, having already been put under contract by the energy drink Red Bull.

Bortolotti said in August: "My mentality is just to do a good job in formula 2 for the remaining three rounds -- after that, I'll start thinking about my future."

But while Alguersuari's seat is theoretically in doubt, STR team boss Franz Tost hints strongly that the Faenza outfit will field an unchanged lineup in 2010.

"I'm quite confident that from the middle of next year onwards we will have a good driver lineup, because then Alguersuari will know all the tracks and Buemi is increasing his performance already," he is quoted as saying by The Sun.