Former Red Bull driver Jaime Alguersuari talked about how being fired from Toro Rosso led him to music. The Spaniard explained that, unable to understand why he was removed from the team in 2012, he struggled to cope with what had happened and sought refuge in music. In fact, the driver had three more active racing years ahead of him before he moved to music.
In an interview with El Confidencial, Alguersuari shed some light on how the change took place. He said,
"I was lucky enough to be helped by Red Bull for many years, until they decided to do without me. And I did not accept that change. I did not understand. I went through a very complicated psychological and emotional moment, which made me a childish person. You can understand, you are young, you have ambitions, you want to be world champion, you see it close."
The former Red Bull junior explains how music became his refuge
Alguersuari reflected on how Toro Rosso's decision to let him go drove him to a state of confusion and chaos. It was then, the former racer noted, that he found comfort in music. He explained:
"But suddenly, when that happens, it's chaos, you don't understand life any other way. For this reason, music welcomed me as "here we are going to give you a space, where you can communicate, cry, laugh, where you can connect and let yourself go." "
The former Red Bull junior also reflected on how the change helped him create a new identity for himself:
"It's what happened to me, that's why I created Squire, a name, which is like my second self, but being Jaime. He was the new me. And not Jaime Alguersuari, because this was someone who already was, and he would never be again."
Alguersuari details his sensational debut in F1
Alguersuari was part of the Red Bull driver's academy when he made his debut in F1. The sensational bit, however, was him getting a shot at F1 at just 19 years of age. He had just won the British F3 a year prior and went on to receive a seat at Toro Rosso.
The Spaniard did admit that he did initially feel it was too early, but his career was managed by Red Bull, and they gave the orders. He said,
"That was outrageous, I was 19 years old. Not so much because of my age, but because I didn't have the car and debuted in the middle of the year. At that time, I was the head of the Junior Team, I had won Formula 3 in Great Britain, and they came up with that. But it was the only opportunity I had, maybe it wasn't the best, but it was the one there was."
He added that,
"I wasn't prepared to go there, in every way, but there was no other way. You can't say no because you don't know when it's going to happen again. Red Bull feels in a way like your parents, because they are the ones who have paid for your race to race, and they make the decisions."
Jaime Alguersuari was one of the many on the long list of drivers hung out to dry by Helmut Marko for not being impressive enough.