Revamped Toro Rosso hope to charge up Hungary grid

London: Struggling Toro Rosso expect to get back up to speed with a heavily revamped car from next week`s Hungarian Grand Prix.The Red Bull-owned Formula One team, who won in Italy last year with Sebastian Vettel, sacked Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais on Thursday and 19-year-old Spaniard Jaime Alguersuari is widely considered the favourite to replace him next week.

In a preview for Budapest, team principal Franz Tost predicted a big step up. "We expect that the technical upgrades should see us return to a level of competitiveness that we were able to demonstrate in the second half of last season," he said. Toro Rosso won their home Italian Grand Prix last September with Germany`s Sebastian Vettel, now with championship contenders and sister team Red Bull. Red Bull were beaten into seventh place by Toro Rosso in the 2008 constructors standings but have transformed their position this year with three one-two finishes to challenge Brawn GP for the lead. Toro Rosso have scored just five points and are ninth of the 10 teams. Tost said they had fallen behind partly because of limited resources, opting to deliver one major update rather than constantly improving the car. He also blamed Bourdais for failing to "live up to our expectations". Technical director Giorgio Ascanelli said the team, whose other driver is Swiss rookie Sebastien Buemi, had missed Vettel`s talents. Bureau Report