Ex-F1 star faced 'trauma' and 'strange dreams' after being sacked in one-minute phone call

While Max Verstappen's record of the youngest driver to start a Grand Prix is unlikely to be broken anytime soon, before him came Jaime Alguersuari, who debuted in F1 aged 19 years and 125 days.

However, unlike Verstappen, who went on to become a four-time world champion, Alguersuari followed a significantly different path. The Barcelona-born driver raced for just three seasons in F1 before Red Bull dropped him. At the age of 25, he retired from motorsport altogether to focus on a career as a DJ.

Alguersuari's exit came at the end of the 2011 season, in which he scored points on seven occasions en route to a 14th-place finish in the Drivers' Championship for Toro Rosso. He was relieved of his duties in a short phone call as Red Bull severed all ties with the young Spaniard.

"It was a very quick phone call lasting just one minute," he told the Daily Star in 2023, looking back at his short F1 stint. "It was a very tough thing, and I didn't understand why. I still don't understand why, even today. The thing is, the two drivers who came after us [Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne] didn't beat our results.

"They upgraded one of them [Ricciardo] to Red Bull, and he then came third in the World Championship. I understand how F1 works, but I don't really want to buy how they decided this, because it was not a sporting decision. They played their cards, and I wasn't smart enough to move out at the right time."

Alguersuari's decision to distance himself from the F1 paddock was understandable. He initially took on punditry duties, but felt extremely uncomfortable being back around the sport that cast him aside.

In a revealing interview with El Confidencial, Alguersuari revealed the profound psychological toll that his three-year stint in F1 took. "I'm going to tell you something: I still dream, when I sleep, I have very strange dreams, very strange dreams from all that time," he explained.

"Above all, the helplessness and frustration of never meeting expectations, of seeing Mr [Helmut] Marko always angry, telling me off. As if we were children. I see myself like that. This has created a trauma, and I'm convinced that [team-mate Sebastien] Buemi and many others are going through it too.

"I have not been able to clean this. I have done therapies, and when I retired, several psychologists helped me to deal with this to make a new life, but I wanted to deal with this to clean everything I had lived before."

Alguersuari later posted on Twitter (now X) to clarify his comments and thank Red Bull and Marko for their role in his development. Now 35, the Barcelona native is enjoying his blossoming career as DJ Squire and finally feels comfortable returning to the F1 paddock.