Biography

In 2005, having successfully defended his Spanish Champion crown and finishing third in both the Italian Open Masters ICA and the Qualifying Championship in Europe- not to mention finishing runner-up in the FIA World Cup Asia Pacific - Jaime made his single-seater debut in the Formula Junior 1.6 by Renault Italy series with Tomcat Racing, finishing third overall. To cap an ideal year, the youngster joined the prestigious Red Bull Junior Team.

In 2006 Jaime made the move up to Formula Renault 2.0, taking the Winter Series with 4 wins. He also found time to contest the Formula Renault Eurocup and Formula Renault 2.0 Italy, where he was 'rookie of the year'.

He continued in Formula Renault 2.0 in 2007, now having switched to Joan Villadelprat's Epsillon Euskadii team, finishing fifth in the Eurocup and runner-up in the Italian series.

In 2008, Jaime moved up to F3, contesting the British series with Carlin Motorsport and Spanish series with GTA Motor Competicion. While he finished fifth in the Spanish series, having won 3 races, he stormed to overall victory in the prestigious British series with 5 Wins, 6 pole positions, 12 podiums and 5 fastest laps.

Already having made a name for himself, Jaime attracted further attention when he deputised for the injured Mark Webber in the 2008 Race of Champions at Wembley, though he was beaten in the first round of the Drivers' Cup by Carl Edwards.

In 2009, Jaime contested the Formula Renault 3.5 Series with Carlin however, while he was a regular point scorer he was largely outshone by his British teammate Oliver Turvey. That said, by mid-season there was talk of the 19-year-old making the switch to F1 as Toro Rosso became more and more disillusioned with Sebastien Bourdais.

On 16 July, Toro Rosso announced that it had parted company with Bourdais and within 24-hours Jaime had tested for the Faenza outfit. On Monday 20 July, having scored his first podium result of the Formula Renault 3.5 Series the day before at Le Mans, Jaime was confirmed as Toro Rosso's second driver, his debut at the Hungaroring just a few days later making him the youngest driver in the history of F1.

By the time Jaime came on board it was clear that Toro Rosso was finally getting to grips with the STR4. However, the testing rules meant the Hungary was a baptism of fire for the young Spaniard.

A technical problem meant he was only able to qualify twentieth however, next day a steady performance saw him bring his car home safely in fifteenth, one place ahead of his Swiss teammate.

By the time the 'circus' got to Japan the STR4 finally finding some fast sweeping tracks it suited, Jaime was regularly making it to Q2. Sadly, the Spaniard was unable to make it into the record books as the youngest point scorer, a number of accidents and technical problems meaning that he only completed 322 racing laps (78.3%).

With so little evidence it's difficult, not to say unfair, to make a judgement at this stage, however, most pundits are of the opinion that the Spanish youngster got the job done and did what was expected of him.

On January 22, Toro Rosso confirmed that Jaime would be retained for 2010, team boss Franz Tost saying: "Considering that he made his debut only halfway through 2009 with no prior testing, he did a good job, making steady progress throughout the second half of the year, with a mature approach considering he is still only nineteen years old."

Statistics - at the end of 2009 Season

Drivers' Titles: 0
Seasons in F1: 1
Grand Prix: 8
Wins: 0
Points: 0
Poles: 0
Fastest Laps: 0

Best result in 2009: 14th (Brazil)
Best qualifying 2009: 12th (Brazil)
Worst qualifying 2009: 20th (2 times)
2009: Out-qualified Sebastien Buemi 0 times
2009: Out-qualified by Sebastien Buemi 8 times

2009: Completed 322 out of 411 laps (78.3%)
2009: Finished 3 times from 8 starts (38%)