Paul Jeffrey

Premium
Gasly in at Toro Rosso.jpg

Toro Rosso have confirmed the surprise promotion on Red Bull Young Driver Pierre Gasly with immediate effect, replacing first team driver Daniil Kvyat from the Malaysian Grand Prix.


Although obviously a concern for the future prospects of Russian youngster Kvyat, Toro Rosso have stated that the driver remains part of the Red Bull family, and is merely being rested for the forthcoming events to allow the small Italian team to assess Gasley with a view to offering a full time seat next season.

Many Formula One insiders suspected the young Frenchman could make an early debut for Toro Rosso this season, however most expected the driver to step in for Carlos Sainz Jr, as the Spaniard looked set to make an early switch to his 2018 team Renault Sport. In something of a confusing game of musical chairs it appears that out-of-form Kvyat is now left standing when the music stops, potentially bringing to an end a less than spectacular stay in the top flight of open wheel motorsport.

Speaking of the surprise move to replace Kvyat, Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost was less than impressed by his current charge, whilst firmly hinting that Gasley is where the future of the team appears to rest, for 2018 at least;

“Scuderia Toro Rosso was established by Red Bull to bring youngsters from its Junior Programme into Formula 1 and that's what we are doing by giving Pierre this chance.

He (Gasly) is the next in line at Red Bull for this opportunity and he has shown that he deserves it, having taken the 2016 GP2 title and this year being very competitive in the Super Formula series in Japan.

"He really has a valid chance of winning the title, as he is only half a point behind the leader. The driver switch gives us an opportunity to make a more informed decision regarding our 2018 driver choices."

"For a variety of reasons, some of them due to technical problems, but others being mistakes of his own making, Daniil Kvyat has not really shown his true potential so far this year, which is why we are standing him down for the next races.

"This will give us the opportunity to evaluate Pierre on track during a proper race weekend."

Understandably Gasly himself was delighted to be given a chance to race in points scoring machinery, with the driver set to compete this weekend in Malaysia and the following race in Japan. Further participation for Toro Rosso could prove difficult however due to clashing with his Super Formula commitments;

"I would like to thank everyone who has helped me get this chance in my motor racing career and specifically, Red Bull, Dr. Helmut Marko and Scuderia Toro Rosso...this is a great opportunity for me," he said.

"I feel as ready as I can be, having had to be prepared for anything in my role as Red Bull Racing's third driver this year. I will do my best to perform well with Scuderia Toro Rosso during these coming races."

Toro Rosso continue to asses all options for the coming season in light of the poor form displayed by Kvyat and the departure of Sainz to Renault, and with a potentially uncompetitive engine from Honda due to be strapped to the back of the two Faenza based cars for 2018, the team have decided now would be a good time to see if Gasly has what it takes to cut it against the sharp end of the F1 field.

In Gasly’s advantage will be his intimate knowledge of Suzuka from his time spent this year in the Super Formula series, however with limited F1 seat time and two very difficult Grand Prix ahead of him, these next couple of weeks will be a very tough test of the 21-year-old drivers ability to perform under pressure.

For more from the world of Grand Prix racing check out the Formula One sub forum here at RaceDepartment.

What do you think of the decision to drop Kvyat for the next two races? Is this the end of his Formula One ambitions with the Red Bull group? Can Gasly do himself justice in such a short time? Let us know in the comments section below!
 
Last edited:
Poor Kyvatt :( - Regardless of what you think of him as a driver, him being forced out of a seat twice is an embarrassment that, as far as I am aware, no other driver has had to endure.
 

Benutzername

www.hasenkamp-motorsport.de
Premium
Good to finally see a new driver getting thr chance instead of Kvyat.

I was impressed of Kvyat at the start if his career.
Up until the two incidents with Vettel. That was the worst timing ive ever seen. Not the incidents itself were the problem, but his degradation. Of course RB would take the chance to give the talent Verstappen his shot. Kvyat was never quite the same afterwards and is just a waste of space on the grid in my opinion. Unfortunate, but in the end he could not fight back.

Hopefully Gasly can take his chance.
 

Jimlaad43

Nice apex, I'll take it!
Staff
Premium
I was never impressed with Gasly, but he should be better than Kvyat. Kvyat getting sacked is his fault, not Red Bull's. He needed to react well to the demotion, but he hasn't and has been appalling this year. Gasly/Matsushita at Toro Rosso - Honda next year maybe?
 

Mr Latte

Premium
Kinda of a surprise but also not really...
Silverstone and the reaction might have been the last straw.
They have said he remains part of the Red Bull family :)

Oh and talking of straw, how about the Red Bull Soap Box !!!


We can see the Renault / Honda interest in all this and other happenings with Torro Rosso
I'm sure it was in Renaults interest to have another french driver back in F1. Also France back in as a GP in 2018 onwards. Commerical politics are never far away or going away it seems.

"Pierre Gasly is a French formula racing driver, who was the 2014 Formula Renault 3.5 Series runner-up and the 2016 GP2 Series champion. He drives a Honda-powered car for Team Mugen in the 2017 Super Formula Championship"
 
Last edited:
What a fall from grace from where he was at the end of 2015.

Red Bull is truly unpredictable, on one hand i couldn't understand why they were so soft on Kvyat when they killed other careers for less...

But now right after they rented the other STR driver they decide to axe Kvyat with immediate effect, it's just surprising.
 
I don't like RedBull but it is not right to say Kvyat was treated unfairly. They gave him plenty of second chances. Too bad for him that he could not grab them, but dozens of very talented guys did not even have a single opportunity to prove themselves in F1.
 
Feel so sorry for Daniil, this is a **** comparison, but I once got dropped to the B team in rugby, at that time and at my age, this blew all the wind out of my sails and I couldn't perform after the demotion, leading to another one. I also have seen fellow oarsmen at school get dropped and never recover. Daniil was solid in 2015 and had loads of potential, the demotion made him damaged goods.
 
Its always nice to see the youngsters rising through the ranks , but more importantly that the development programmes actually work , do not know the kid but wish him all the best :thumbsup:
 
The problem is with Red Bull Dev Program is It is a half assed thing. Yes it is giving chance to new, young drivers. But If they are not the next Vettel then there is a huge pressure to do well ( I think Kvyat can't handle pressure well). An ideal program would give the driver a chance to drive in f1 and the time to open up and get comfortable in the car. I am not a Kvyat fan but yes He ****ed up a little but every one do the worse when uder pressure and in f1 this pressure can be very big.
 
The problem is with Red Bull Dev Program is It is a half assed thing. Yes it is giving chance to new, young drivers. But If they are not the next Vettel then there is a huge pressure to do well ( I think Kvyat can't handle pressure well). An ideal program would give the driver a chance to drive in f1 and the time to open up and get comfortable in the car. I am not a Kvyat fan but yes He ****ed up a little but every one do the worse when uder pressure and in f1 this pressure can be very big.

F1 is simply too expensive for it to be any other way, though.
 
Back when Mercedes was trying to figure out who to run this season, I was thinking the Gasly (and Kvyat) camps should try anything to get rid of Sainz. That included convincing another team pay to take him away. Now here we are...
 
Mentioned before, but the downturn in kivyat's racing has been considerable; a couple of years ago This driver was holding own against ricardo!
Since then it's been too many crash. :/

Collecting the singapore barrier with a bit of damp on the track was the swansong; that's one too many sir.
 

How much money have you spend on your current simracing hardware

  • €0-150

    Votes: 81 19.0%
  • €151-500

    Votes: 119 27.9%
  • €501-1000

    Votes: 70 16.4%
  • €1001-1500

    Votes: 36 8.5%
  • €1501-3000

    Votes: 42 9.9%
  • €3001-5000

    Votes: 22 5.2%
  • €5001-10000

    Votes: 26 6.1%
  • I stopped counting a long time ago

    Votes: 30 7.0%
Top