Following Sebastien Buemi’s dismissal by Toro Rosso at the end of the 2011 season, the Swiss driver has been taken on by their sister club Red Bull as the test and reserve driver, which he also served as in the 2008 season for the same team.

Buemi finished the championship in 15th position, and has since been replaced along with his former team mate Alguersuari, by the young duo of Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo.

For a while there weren’t that many F1 fans who expected the Valencia Street circuit to last long very in the grand prix calendar. The racing it has produced since arriving as host of the European Grand Prix in 2008 has been unspectacular, and the general opinion of the circuit has been lukewarm to say the least.

But in June of this year all that changed - Valencia had its contract renewed surprisingly renewed until 2021, and all eyes suddenly fell on its national rival - the circuit of Catalunya and the current host of the Spanish Grand Prix.