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Q&A with Jaime Alguersuari
He’s been a Red Bull Driver since 2006, but at the ripe young age of 19, this Spaniard became the youngest ever Formula One driver in history in 2009. Since then, he’s driven three F1 seasons for Toro Rosso.
You became an F1 driver when you were still a teenager. Do you think age plays a big role in your industry?
I don’t think age has much to do with it. As in all sports, competitors are starting younger so there are more young people in F1 than a couple of decades ago. But even then, there were exceptions like Rubens Barrichello who was 20 when he started. Mansell won his title when he was 40, so you can still compete when you are older too.
Tell me about your teammate, Sébastien Buemi. What’s he like?
Seb and I get on fine, although we don’t spend time together away from the races as he lives in Monaco and I live in Barcelona. He’s a nice guy and I think we work well together as a team.
How do you think Sébastien would describe you as a teammate?
You’d better ask him, although when we share a room at the race track I think he thinks I’m untidy.
On a regular day, do you still prefer to drive or be driven?
As I get to drive the best type of race cars in the world for my job, I am quite happy to be driven by someone else as long as they are sensible and stick to the rules of the road.
These show runs don’t put any pressure on you, right?
There is no pressure in a show run; it is just a bit of fun for me. There is no element of competition and all I want to do is put on a good show for the crowd, doing spins and slides and so on. I drive the F1 car all year at the race track, so I don’t need to practice for the show run, although I always have a good look at the course first so that I know what I’m doing.
You’re also a professional DJ – how does that compare to F1?
I enjoy doing both but you cannot compare driving a race car with DJing as they are such different activities. In their way they are both very challenging but driving the F1 car is more demanding, in terms of concentration and you also have to be extremely fit to do it.
Is there a location you’d love to ride through?
It would be cool to drive an F1 car on the beach, or on ice, but even driving through a city is very exciting.
Have you been to Hong Kong before? What did you think of our city?
Yes, I was there when I was on my way to race in Macau. I did not get much of a chance to see anything then, but this time, coming for a show run, my schedule should allow me some time for sightseeing. I would like to see Kowloon.
Interview: Andrea Yu
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