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17 Jean-Eric VERGNE • France • Scuderia Toro Rosso
Born April 25, 1990
F1 debut Australia 2002
Career statistics to end of 2011: n/a
One of two new faces in the Toro Rosso line-up this year, Jean-Eric Vergne, or “JEV” as he is
commonly known, took just two races to score his first world championship points when he
came eighth in Malaysia.
Vergne kick-started his racing career in karts, winning support from the French national motor
sporting authorities when he switched to single-seaters in Formula Renault Campus, effortlessly
winning that series in 2007. He was also by then a member of the Red Bull Junior program.
A year later he was contesting both the Eurocup and the West European Cup in Formula
Renault 2.0, and in 2009 he was runner-up in both categories.
Then came what he has called a life-changing move to the UK and a superb 2010 with Carlin
Motorsport. Vergne was following in his current F1 teammate Dan Ricciardo’s footsteps and,
like the Australian, he took out the British F3 title with Carlin.
Moving up to the 3.5-litre version of Formula Renault, JEV took five race wins in 2011 but just
lost out in the final round and was runner-up overall.
In November of that year he took full advantage of the Young Driver Test in Abu Dhabi by using
Red Bull’s title-winning RB7 to set fastest time on each of the three days.
Vergne was given a severe scolding for an ill-judged maneuver against Heikki Kovalainen in
Valencia, but he freely admits he’s on a steep learning curve and he can point to three eighthplace
finishes as proof of the talent to which he only needs to apply some polish.
Jean-Eric Vergne’s 2012 statistics:
18 races • 0 wins • 0 pole positions • 0 fastest laps • 12 points
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