My Italian isn't up to scratch but in Autosprint's April edition Alesi discusses F1 and Vergne as well as his upcoming Indy racing. The online PDF Mag for April can be downloaded here
I may well be wrong - and the internet translator is pretty bad too for the purpose of exactly understanding this story but it would appear to me that at a meeting of the Red Bull board Alesi alleges that Newey raises Vergne as a Toro Rosso prospect, saying something like "Toro Rosso is our breeding ground for young talent" to which Marko says "yeah and?" to which Newey seems to reply "because I don't want the two that are there now" ( perche, Io non voglio i due che ci sono adesso) being Alguersuari and Buemi. "I'd say one to get is Vergne" (Secondo me uno da prendere e Vergne).
If Alesi is telling it as it is then the call to dump Jaime and Sebastian from the Toro Rosso race seats came from Adrian Newey and not Marko. Interesting - this story is growing legs
