» Rookie drivers still in the frame at Toro Rosso

Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko has refused to rule out a change in the driver line-up of the Toro Rosso outfit during the 2011 championship season, amid recent suggestions that the team’s drivers, Jaime Alguersuari and Sébastien Buemi, could be replaced.

The main threat to the pairing – which is entering its third season together – is the team’s test and reserve driver Daniel Ricciardo, as well the drink giant’s latest protege, Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne.

“In Ricciardo and Vergne we have two outstanding talents. Buemi and Alguersuari know that their job is not a pillow, and we are not a boarding school,” Marko told Auto Motor und Sport.

Both Marko and the Toro Rosso team have a reputation for turfing underperforming drivers at short notice – as the likes of Scott Speed, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Sébastien Bourdais will testify – and the Austrian has little hesitation in tightening the screws on the team’s current line-up.

“Buemi’s services last year were not what we expected of him. Alguersuari has developed, but is it enough?” he asked.

The team finished a distant ninth in last year’s Constructors’ Championship standings with 13 points in total.

[Original images via AUTOSPORT, LAT and Sutton Images]