Franz Tost has expressed confidence that Pierre Gasly will avoid the pitfalls that befell Daniil Kvyat during his time at the Red Bull Formula 1 team.
Gasly, as with Kvyat, has been promoted to Red Bull earlier than initially planned, following an unexpected driver departure.
The Frenchman's promotion has come after one full season – in the wake of Daniel Ricciardo’s switch to Renault – while back in 2014 Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari move resulted in Red Bull promoting then-rookie Kvyat.
Kvyat scored a couple of podiums with Red Bull but was demoted back to Toro Rosso in early 2016 amid a run of poor results, which coincided with the rise of Max Verstappen.
But Tost has pointed to Gasly’s greater experience in junior categories as the reason for Gasly avoiding a similar fate.
Tost said: “It’s a big difference between these two drivers. Why? Because Daniil Kvyat came from GP3 directly to F1, and this already is a big risk. But he did it because he is a really high skilled driver.
“Pierre Gasly has a completely different education, let me say it in this way.
“He did first of all the Renault 3.5 World Series, which is a very good series, a very fast [series] in those days.
“Then he did two years F2 [ed: GP2], and he did one year Super Formula in Japan.
“That means his basis on the education side, from the experience side, is on a much higher level than it was with Daniil Kvyat, because he didn’t have so much time.
“Daniil also would have stayed with us two or three years, with Toro Rosso, but in those days Vettel changed to Ferrari and therefore Red Bull needed a driver. That’s the reason why, it was not the programme from the beginning onwards.”
Tost has nonetheless backed Kvyat – who has returned to Toro Rosso for a third stint – to prove his worth, following a year out of the sport.
“We all know that Daniil Kvyat is a very high skilled driver, and he showed this in the past,” stressed Tost.
“He won the GP3 championship and then in 2014 when he was racing the first year with us he also showed there a very good performance.
“Then he came to Red Bull Racing, and I think everything was a little bit too fast.
“He came then back to us, and there were so problems with our car in those days, we were not so competitive.
“Then he was one year at Ferrari in the simulator, where he got the chance to learn a lot, to get more mature, and he is now back.
“I think we have Daniil Kvyat back in our car as we know him from the former times, and therefore Daniil Kvyat will do a good job. If the car is running well, as we expect, then he will also do a good job.”
