With his dark designer stubble and boyish charm, Jaime Alguersuari looks perfectly at peace playing with a football in the paddock at Circuit de Catalunya.
As he keeps the ball in the air, surrounded by a buzz of onlooking photographers, he could easily pass for any one of the Primera Liga footballers - particularly Barcelona's Gerard Pique - who are expected to arrive tomorrow to soak up the glamour of the Spanish Grand Prix.
When the ball finally falls to the ground, he gives a nonchalant shrug and retreats to his Toro Rosso paddock to prepare for a race he refers to as "one of the best in the year".
In front of fervent Spanish support, Alguersuari is hoping to emulate last season's achievement and score some points, but having endured a tough start to the new campaign, his place in the team has already been put in question.
"I really hope the season turns around a bit for me and from this weekend onwards we can have a much better season," he said.
"For one reason or another it was not really the best beginning for me, so hopefully we can finish in the points." With Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo confirmed to take part in Friday testing at every race this season - and impressing again yesterday finishing 12th fastest in the morning - it is inevitable either Alguersuari or teammate Sebastien Buemi will need to move on at the end of the season.
Whether that means they will leave the sport or potentially - albeit unlikely - replace Mark Webber or Sebastian Vettel at Toro Rosso's sister team, Red Bull Racing, remains unknown.
Both Alguersuari and Buemi headed to Milton Keynes immediately after the Turkish Grand Prix earlier this month to carry out work in the constructors' champions' simulator, so the assessment - and investment - is ongoing.
Speculation has increased that bad blood is boiling under between the two drivers.
When Alguersuari was asked whether there was tension between himself and his teammate, his answer was vague: "I don't know."
Buemi, in contrast, said he was not worried for his own future.
"I'm calm, because regardless of results I've always done my maximum and, compared to my teammate, I've never done badly," Buemi said. "Last year, I scored more than him and I did better than him in qualifying, too."
Franz Tost, the team principal at Toro Rosso, confirmed in Istanbul that Ricciardo will race in 2012, but he insisted there will be no change mid-season, a fact Alguersuari says was confirmed to him earlier this week.
Even if it takes until December, were the Spaniard to slip out of the sport, it would mark a relatively short F1 career - although not one without its milestones.
On July 22, 2009, Alguersuari became the youngest driver to be awarded an F1 race seat when he replaced Sebastian Bourdais aged 19 years and 121 days.
The Catalan driver's forename is pronounced "hi-me", but there was no room for reflection as he took part in his first race just four days later at the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest.
"I am aware that I'm facing a very tough challenge," he said at the time. "Coming into Formula One is never easy, coming into Formula One in the middle of a season is even harder and doing so without any testing is really difficult."
He came 15th on his debut, ahead of teammate Buemi, but only managed to finish twice more in the remaining seven races.
He improved in his first full season, scoring points in Malaysia, Spain and Abu Dhabi, but this year has got gradually worse. Eleventh in Australia was followed by 14th in Malaysia. In China, having managed a career-best seventh in qualifying, he was forced to retire when a wheel came loose after his first pit-stop. In Istanbul, he managed only 16th.
"I am struggling a bit in the race," he said. "We did not have the chance to finish China or Malaysia in good conditions, but in general we have good experiences.
"We have potential to improve. This year the car is more competitive - we have shown it in qualifying.
"If the strategy is right and we know what to do with the tyres, then it's possible to score some points, which would be amazing."
