Toro Rosso boss gives theory on Gasly failures

Martin Macdonald
Tuesday 22 October 2019 11:00

Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost believes that Pierre Gasly’s disappointing campaign with Red Bull in 2019 is down to the two crashes he had in pre-season testing, which dented his confidence with his new team.

With Daniel Ricciardo moving to Renault, Red Bull chose Gasly as his replacement with him being promoted from junior team Toro Rosso.

However, it has been a torrid season for Gasly, so much so that Red Bull took the decision to demote him back to Toro Rosso, with Alexander Albon going in the other direction.

Tost, who is once again the French driver’s team boss, thinks Gasly perhaps doubted his abilities after crashing, twice, in Barcelona testing.

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“It’s difficult for me to say because I was not there,” Tost explained to Auto Hebdo.

“Maybe he was not comfortable with the behaviour of the car. He also had two accidents in the winter and that hurt his confidence.”

One of the major reasons for Gasly’s eventual demotion is that he was continuously, easily bettered by team-mate Max Verstappen, and Tost reckons when battling the Dutchman, your confidence needs to be optimal.

“But in a world like Formula 1, you must have a mind of steel, especially when you are facing Max Verstappen,” he added.