09-Jan-09: Toro Rosso Confirm Sebastien Buemi for 2009

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Welcome to F1 Minute for the 9th January 2009.

Toro Rosso have finally confirmed that Sebastien Buemi will be one half of their 2009 lineup. This is by no means a surprise, as Buemi has performed well in recent testing, and many top names within Red Bull have said he’d be ideal. The only question remains who will partner him, but Toro Rosso won’t announce that until later – presumably having not made their minds up yet.

Elsewhere, Autosport.com are reporting that the new Renault R29 has failed two of three mandatory crash tests in quite a spectacular fashion. Rumour has it that an entire chassis was written off during one of the tests. Nevertheless, a spokesperson for Renault has assured us that the engineers know exactly what the problems are, and they will be solved straight away. They also clarified that failing a crash test is not unusual.

Finally, I mentioned yesterday that Nick Fry revealed there are 12 parties interested in Honda. The Telegraph today reports that one of them is Fry himself, who is proposing a management buyout.

That’s it for today, please join me tomorrow for another F1 Minute.