Toro Rosso has confirmed an unchanged driver line-up for the 2020 F1 season.
Daniil Kvyat and Pierre Gasly will continue to drive for the team next year.Both drivers returned to the team during the course of this season. Kvyat made his F1 debut with Toro Rosso in 2014, then also returned to the team two years later following a stint at Red Bull, before sitting out the 2018 season.
Gasly did 12 races at Red Bull at the beginning of the year, but struggled to get the best from the car, and was replaced by Alexander Albon during the summer break.
“Both drivers have shown really good performances this season and they have proven in their years in F1 to be very competitive, able to exploit the car’s potential and give valuable feedback to make improvements,” said team principal Franz Tost.
“This young but experienced duo, combined with hopefully a competitive car, will be the best factors to achieve a very successful season in 2020 and I’m looking forward to this extended cooperation.”
Kvyat, who is already the team’s longest-serving driver, scored Toro Rosso’s second podium in its 14-year-history in July’s German Grand Prix.
“I’m really happy because I feel very comfortable with everyone here, I know the team and they know me very well, so it’s easy to understand everyone’s needs,” he said.
“We’ve achieved great things together, like our podium this year in Germany, so I hope to deliver a very strong season again for this team next year. I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue in Formula 1 and I will give it my all to show the best possible performances next year.”
View the current list of 2020 F1 drivers and teams
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sumedh
12th November 2019, 10:56
Bit surprised with this one. What is Helmut going to do when Alex / Max underperform?
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
12th November 2019, 11:16
Yeah who knows what he does next?
In any case expected choice, given they don’t really have excellent drivers in their Junior programs.
Jere (@jerejj)
12th November 2019, 12:04
@jureo More like drivers in their program with enough super license-points available, as soon as there’s one who fulfills the SL-requirements, either Kvyat or Gasly will probably be gone.
Adam (@rocketpanda)
12th November 2019, 12:22
It’s a pretty good lineup at Toro Rosso with those two. They’re both pretty experienced but quite young, still got a lot of speed and a lot of people to prove wrong. I’m really impressed with how Gasly’s form has improved since being at Toro Rosso – the ‘demotion’ didn’t seem to hit him as hard as it did with Kvyat. Good luck to Toro Rosso or Alpha Tauri or whatever it’s being called next year.
dan
12th November 2019, 12:33
Like seriously Redbull try and get some new young talent, Kvyat is an absoloute waste he will never drive for Red Bull again. And Gasly has been quicker than him, even rookie Albon was ahead in qually he has had way too many chances. Kvyat i like in the races he is hard but fair but he is not imo worthy of the seat i want to see a new talent in the seat.
Jake
12th November 2019, 17:42
Your say that, but if they didn’t burn through all their young talent over the last 5 years they’d be fine! And to make matters worse, they dumped both Dan Ticktum and Patricio O’Ward in the past year! Helmut Marko is so obsessed over finding another guy on Vertsappen’s level to the point he’s dumping guys in less than a year if they don’t show that level of promise!
I do agree that Kvyat needs to find a new drive though. He could win a race in that Toro Rosso and Marko wouldn’t give him an RBR seat again. I thought Haas would have been a great move but they’re seemingly committed to running the same two idiots (Grosjean and K-Mag) until they retire.
isaac (@invincibleisaac)
12th November 2019, 21:32
Does this mean that there is now only 1 seat left to be confirmed: alongside Russel at Williams? I’m rather surprised, and in a way disappointed, that all of these announcements have arrived before the season is over and most of the drivers are staying put. Heading into this season only 2 team (Haas and Mercedes) retained their line-up from the previous year, however now this is the opposite. Heading into 2020 only 2 teams will have a different line-up (Williams and Renault) and assuming that Latifi gets that final seat there will only be 1 rookie on the grid! Doesn’t this shock anyone else?
Scotty
12th November 2019, 23:29
It seems to me that most teams are going to be spending most of 2020 working on a 2021 car. To that end, maintaining a stable driver line up would mean that you are controlling a pretty big variable in your development plan. It should be interesting to see who will pull the plug on 2020 development first. It will make for a nice mid field battle, if not for the front three.
Sumedh
13th November 2019, 0:40
I would argue otherwise. This is pretty much expected.
If 8 teams had a new line up this year, unless something was seriously amiss, none of them would want to change the line up and take the additional workload of adjusting to a new driver, different technical feedback, etc. after just 1 year of a line up.
Scotty
13th November 2019, 0:24
It seems to me that most teams are going to be spending most of 2020 working on a 2021 car. To that end, maintaining a stable driver line up would mean that you are controlling a pretty big variable in your development plan. It should be interesting to see who will pull the plug on 2020 development first. It will make for a nice mid field battle, if not for the front three.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
14th November 2019, 6:30
Fire kvyat.