Buemi being groomed for Red Bull Racing in 2012?

According to reports in the Swiss media, Scuderia Toro Rosso's S?bastien Buemi is being lined up for a future at Red Bull Racing - and the 21-year-old's Canadian Grand Prix performance at the weekend did his cause no harm at all...

Red Bull and Scuderia Toro Rosso management were effusive in their praise for the performance of S?bastien Buemi in last weekend's Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, as it was claimed that the company's 'plan' is to promote the young Swiss ace to a Red Bull Racing cockpit in F1 2012.

Despite having qualified down in usual STR territory in a lowly 15th position on the sport's popular return to the iconic Circuit Gilles Villeneuve - just ahead of team-mate Jaime Alguersuari - Buemi produced an impressively combative showing on race day on the ?le Notre Dame, as he led the grand prix during the pit-stops and went on to overtake record-breaking multiple F1 World Champion Michael Schumacher en route to an eventual eighth-place at the chequered flag, his best result and only his second points-scoring finish of the season.

It had been mooted prior to the Canadian weekend by Dr. Helmut Marko that should Buemi not raise his game in the wake of a string of feisty showings from Alguersuari, then he could be shown the door, but post-race the Red Bull motorsport consultant and head of the company's young driver programme was rather more praiseworthy about the 21-year-old, and Swiss newspaper Blick has reported that Red Bull's 'plan' is to run the Aigle native alongside Sebastian Vettel at RBR in two years' time.

"That is the Buemi that we want to see - aggressive, controlled and super-fast, even with a broken exhaust," Marko enthused after Montreal, whilst Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost added: "Buemi has his best times still ahead of him. He knows that with us he is in good hands, with no unnecessary pressure."

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