Alguersuari's F1 Boost Related to Improved Fitness

Jaime Alguersuari has turned from a struggling driver who barely crossed the finish line into a fine racer, who battles for points race after race and pulls off plenty of overtaking maneuvers to advance in the field. The Spaniard's upswing performances this season have started from the Australian Grand Prix onwards, when he managed to stay in front of Michael Schumacher for almost half of race before finally being passed and missing out on the points position.

The following race in Sepang, he made the F1 scoreboard for the first time in career, after pulling some highly spectacular passes over Renault's Vitaly Petrov and Williams' Nico Hulkenberg. In China, only intense tire wear in the late laps of the race slowed him down, after running inside the points for the majority of the Sunday action.

For those of you who are wondering when this miracle happened and, more importantly, how it happened, know that his “update” had a lot to do with his personal fitness. According to Toro Rosso technical director Giorgio Ascanelli, this is the main area in which the Spanish teenager has advanced considerably through the past half of year.

“He'll hate me for saying this, but it's Jaime's physical fitness that's a large part of his improvement. I first noticed it in Valencia last year. Jaime got out of the car and was sweating a lot. I told him, I'm allowed to sweat because I'm 50 and fat - you're 20 and you're meant to be fit,” said Ascanelli in a short interview with BBC's Ted Kravitz.

For the time being, Alguersuari is leading his personal “battle” against teammate Sebastien Buemi with a crushing 4-0, as the Swiss recorded no less than two DNFs in 4 races this season.