Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost says they are likely to retain their new driver line-up of Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly for the 2018 F1 season.
The team has changed its driver line-up several times recently as it initially dropped Daniil Kvyat, then brought him back. Gasly and Hartley have both made their F1 debuts within the last three races.
“Both are Red Bull drivers, both are high-skilled drivers, fast drivers,” he said. “We want to test both of them because there’s a high possibility this will be our driver for 2018. line-up.”
Tost confirmed Kvyat is “not any more with Red Bull and therefore he is free to decide whatever he wants to do.”
He admitted the team is “worried” about its championship position having allowed Carlos Sainz Jnr to join Renault.
“The background story for this is Toro Rosso [had] a valid contract with Renault,” he said. “We decided then to change to Honda.”
“To terminate the contract we of course had to give something to Renault. And the compensation was Carlos Sainz and therefore he is now driving for Red Bull. We are well aware because of his speed it’s a big threat for us because he scored most of the points for Toro Rosso.”
“On one side we lost him scoring points for us and in the other side he is now with Renault. He’s very fast, as you saw in Austin. It will not be easy but if we don’t have any technical problems I’m convinced we can stay ahead of Renault and Haas.”
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Miane
27th October 2017, 22:44
Renault have a good chance to finish the season ahead of STR and Williams also. They have the 5th fastest car and one of the best pair of drivers on the grid.
Tony
27th October 2017, 23:47
And the compensation was Carlos Sainz and therefore he is now driving for Red Bull. <<< Should be Renault
dutchtreat (@dutchtreat)
28th October 2017, 1:57
Honda may want a Japanese driver at Toro Rosso. Who has enough points to drive in F1….?
Mateusz Nowacki (@powerglove)
28th October 2017, 7:04
No one Honda’s protégé has enough points for super license at the moment.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
28th October 2017, 15:06
@dutchtreat Matsushita failed to meet his target. He had to finish in the top 3 and had 2×2 races to do so. He failed to score any points in Spain and is currently standing a low 6th with no hope to reach the top end of the standings. That was quite predictable actually.
So, if I’m not mistaken he’ll lose 10 points from his P1 in 2014 japan formula 3 but will gain 10 from 6th in this year’s F2 and will stay 27 points short with 13.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
28th October 2017, 9:31
If they are that concerned about the championship position, they wouldn’t have let Sainz go and they wouldn’t have made Kvyat skip 2 races, then come back then get kicked out while 2 drivers new to the team are constantly switching seats. If they had kept Kvyat in his seat the entire season, I’m certain that will have been better for them than what they have done. They can only really blame themselves. But I have a feeling that Kvyat may be the last driver that brings them any points unless there is a race full of retirements and one of these 2 manages to keep out of trouble. I don’t think either will be better than Kvyat until they have been in F1 for quite some time. Remember how good Kvyat was in 2015? Since he’s still young, I don’t know why he isn’t really getting another chance.
Baron (@baron)
28th October 2017, 11:12
I can’t see either being better than Kyvat short term so no, points can’t matter to them.
bogaaaa (@nosehair)
28th October 2017, 13:12
@baron am sure Danill would be quicker for the last few races…l assume this is about giving them some race milage..
Baron (@baron)
28th October 2017, 11:18
Still don’t understand why they booted Daniil this close to season end. Was it just to give Hartley some experience ahead of 2018 season? If so, it seems a little brutal, after all, Brendon is no rookie…
bogaaaa (@nosehair)
28th October 2017, 13:07
Hartley will find his feet quickly he is a very capable not so sure about Gas..we know RB will dump these guys quickly in 2018 if they are on Strolls level..hart was faster the stroll in q2
skydiverian (@skydiverian)
28th October 2017, 15:29
The rumours were that Hartley would be joining Ganassi in Indycar to make an all-Kiwi lineup. That’s no longer happening after they signed Ed Jones to the 2nd seat – which suggests that either the rumours were false or that Torro Rosso have already signed Hartley up for 2018
Don
28th October 2017, 16:22
Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost admits it took extensive negotiations with Chip Ganassi to release Brendon Hartley from his IndyCar contract.
http://www.racer.com/f1/item/145325-tost-hartley-and-ganassi-negotiations-long
skydiverian (@skydiverian)
28th October 2017, 16:42
Just found this:
http://www.racer.com/f1/item/145325-tost-hartley-and-ganassi-negotiations-long
The article is about Ganassi having a contract with Hartley and that they have released him after “long” conversations with STR.