Autosport.com reports in their article entitled ‘Tost: ‘No reason’ to replace Hartley if Suzuka form continues’ that Toro Rosso Formula 1 team boss Franz Tost says there will be no reason to replace Brendon Hartley if he maintains form after a breakthrough qualifying in Suzuka.
This comes after his stellar qualifying performance at the key Japanese Grand Prix over the weekend. Hartley not only qualified sixth for the race but also out-qualified his team mate Pierre Gasly for the first time this season.
With this being a ‘home’ Grand Prix for their Honda engine supplier, Hartley delivered when it counted.
Autosport reports Tost as saying:
“If he’s doing a good job, and if he continues like this, there’s no reason to change him.
“Brendon is in the team, and he is improving his performance.
“Where we end up is a decision from Red Bull, and this we will see at the end of the season.
“The team management takes the best opportunity. If a driver has a good performance, there’s no reason to get rid of him.”
There are just five seats left to be filled for the 2019 F1 season. While it is expected that Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll will drive for Racing Point Force India F1 Team, Williams Martini Racing are yet to fill their two seats while Toro Rosso have one seat left after confirming that Daniil Kvyat will take over from Pierre Gasly who will move up to Aston Martin Red Bull Racing.
F1 journalist Joe Saward in his weekly Business of Motorsport newsletter puts forward the options for Toro Rosso.
“The obvious place to look for a driver is Formula 2 and when one studies the series it is clear that there is one unattached driver who stands out above the others. There have been 22 races this year (11 feature events and 11 sprints, which feature the top eight grid positions reversed and can be won by drivers who should not really be winning. Of the feature races, Russell has won three and Alexander Albon three.
“The other five have been won by Nyck de Vries (two) with one win each for Lando Norris, Markelov and Tadasuke Makino.The sprint races have been won by Russell (three) and Markelov (two) with six drivers winning one victory apiece (Albon, de Vries, Jack Aitken, Antonio Fuoco, Maximilian Gunther and Nicholas Latifi).
“Albon’s progress this year has been quiet but he has moved into second place in the championship behind Russell. His career prior to Formula 2 saw impressive results in karting. He was taken on by Red Bull in 2012 but was dropped because of problems unrelated to his on-track performance and had to scramble to rebuild a damaged career. In 2016 he was runner-up to team-mate Charles Leclerc in GP3, the title being decided at the last race, with Albon winning more races but being less consistent.
“The London-born Albon races under the Thai flag, but does not speak Thai and has grown up in Suffolk in England. He recently signed a three-year deal to race for Nissan in Formula E (in order to repay DAMS funding his Formula 2 programme) but no doubt a settlement can found if required. DAMS’s Jean-Paul Driot still owns the majority of shares in the team.”
If Albon was really in the ‘mix’ for a Toro Rosso seat in 2019, surely he would have been considered along with Kvyat? Then why would he have signed a three-year deal with Nissan in Formula E?
What is a driver like Albon (with no F1 experience) going to contribute that Hartley is not already doing?
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