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Jean-Eric Vergne


By Andrew Cutler
January 5 2012

The other half of Scuderia Toro Rosso's 2012 driver line-up took a relatively similar path to reach F1 as Daniel Ricciardo did and, like the Aussie, was fortunate enough to catch the eyes of those who manage the Red Bull drivers' developemental ladder at an early age.

Born in the Paris suburb of Pontoise, Jean-Eric Vergne began karting in 2001 at age 11, where he soon began to make a name for himself as a regular championship contender. By 2007 he was ready to move on to Forumula Renault, winning a 1.6 class championship in his rookie year on the strength of six victories. Two years in Formula Renault 2.0 - where he won 7 times - was followed by a British Formula Three championship (13 wins in 30 races) in 2010: He also made a few 'one-offs' and partial schedule campaigns in four other sereis that year.

Vergne mounted a full season campagin in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series for 2011, notching five wins and four other podium finishes en route to a runner-up status in the championship.

By this time jean-Eric had already shown his chops in the cockpit of an F1 mount, having done selected exhibition and test drives for both Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso since late 2010.

On December 14 Toro Rosso announced that Vergne and Ricciardo would pilot their cars for the 2012 season.

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