Red Bull fighting talk of crisis

Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost has dismissed any notion of "crisis" in the Red Bull junior driver programme. Daniel Ricciardo's departure from Red Bull to Renault for 2019 sparked a movement of drivers through the connected teams that showed options from within were thin on the ground.

Pierre Gasly was promoted to Red Bull to fill Ricciardo's role, leaving Toro Rosso requiring two drivers after Brendon Hartley was let go following a disappointing first full season in F1.

Hartley had joined Toro Rosso several years after departing Red Bull's junior ranks and the team's line-up for 2019 runs on similar lines with Daniil Kvyat and Alexander Albon having previously been dropped from the programme – Kvyat, of course, was dropped by both Red Bull and Toro Rosso in his previous F1 stint.

Dan Ticktum appears to be the next driver in line, and tested Red Bull's RB15 in Bahrain this week, but the Brit still does not possess the required super licence points to drive in F1 full-time, but Tost says the programme is still working as required.

"No, it is nonsense that the Red Bull Young Driver Programme is in crisis," Tost told Motorsport.com. "Dr Helmut Marko does a fantastic job and we have good drivers.

"There would only be a crisis if we had no drivers from our programme at Red Bull and Toro Rosso.

"But we have Max, who can win races and hopefully also the championship; the talented and fast Pierre and two fantastic riders at Toro Rosso.

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"It is not the environment that determines who is successful and who is not, they do it themselves.

"Their performance is the deciding factor and we can be honest about that. We say: 'If you do not perform well enough, you are out.'"

Although having to turn back to Kyat and Albon was framed by some as a negative, Tost does not see it so.

He added: "If they continue to develop and become more mature, if they show that they can do better, then they can just come back. That's no problem."

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