Jean-Eric Vergne shocked with Toro Rosso promotion

With Toro Rosso seemingly content with retaining their 2011 drivers’ towards the end of last season, it came as quite a shock for French rookie, Jean-Eric Vergne, when he received a call informing him he would be racing for Toro Rosso in 2012. He will team-mate Australian, Daniel Ricciardo, for 2012 as the two aim to impress Red Bull Racing.

At 21-years-old, Frenchman Vergne will also be the youngest driver on the 2012 grid. However, he will not be letting that stop him from battling with the veterans of the sport as Toro Rosso aim to hit high in 2012 alongside the likes of Lotus, Force India and Mercedes.

In an interview with the official Formula One website, Vergne explained how he was shocked at being promoted: “Ha, shock-promotion is good way to put it. And of course it was the best day of my professional life so far. I remember every single detail of that day. Helmut [Marko] called me on the morning of December 14. What a wake-up call! I knew that they were evaluating the data of the current drivers and, of course, you always hope that a situation might arise where suddenly you are in the picture. And voila, it happened - the best phone call I’ve ever received. I had that one day to really understand what had just happened because the next day I was already at the Red Bull Racing factory to work with the simulator.”

Since Sebastian Vettel won the teams only race - 2008 Italian Grand Prix - and two years later was World Champion for Red Bull, the pressure on the Toro Rosso drivers’ since has been extremely intense.

Undoubtably, the next step for both Vergne and Ricciardo is promotion from Toro Rosso to Red Bull, with a chance to emulate Sebastian Vettel’s dream career in Formula 1. However, Vergne is focused on making a successful debut with Toro Rosso this year, stating his dreams of a Red Bull driver are for the future.

"Right now I want to do my job at Toro Rosso, learn as much as possible and show them that I was promoted for a reason. And I haven’t done a race yet so it does not make much sense to think about 2013. First things first, and the first thing right now is doing a good test season and then taking that to the Melbourne grid. And then to take it race by race."

Toro Rosso haven’t been on the podium since Vettel won the rain-hit Italian Grand Prix in 2008, and the team want that stat to change in the future as they aim to breed the next Red Bull World Champion.