Driver profile: Jean-Eric Vergne

Jean-Eric Vergne, the latest Red Bull protege to make it off the conveyor belt into Formula 1, had a patchy debut season with Toro Rosso but did enough to hint that he could have a strong future.

His biggest weakness was qualifying - for much of the season he simply tried too hard and he was often quite a substantial way off the pace of team-mate Daniel Ricciardo as a result.

Vergne's stats and facts

  • Team: Toro Rosso
  • Team-mate: Daniel Ricciardo
  • Born: 25/05/90, Pontoise
  • Nationality: French

But his race performances were often strong and sometimes excellent - eighth places in the wet in Malaysia and Brazil and at demanding Spa being cases in point.

If he can more consistently string together good qualifying laps, he could progress further. But Red Bull are ruthless and demanding taskmasters and he needs to get on with it.