Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost has said that the outfit’s 2012 driver line-up won’t be known until the end of the current season.
Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi had been under pressure to perform or else face being replaced by Daniel Ricciardo, however Red Bull negotiated with Hispania to secure the Australian a drive, securing the current line-up at the team.
Whilst they may be safe this season, their 2012 prospects remain up in the air, with Ricciardo likely to replace one of them.
Tost explained the reasons behind his Friday role at Toro Rosso and his seat at Hispania, which saw him replace Narain Karthikeyan.
“At the start of the season, Ricciardo was out for us on Friday mornings for 90 minutes to learn the different racetracks, how the team works, how to give technical feedback, how to work with the engineers, even how to conduct himself for marketing activities and press work,” said Tost.
“Now he’s been offered the chance to race, and I can see only advantages in this. Participating in FP1 is not the same as doing a complete race weekend, so he will be much better prepared for next year.”
Tost admitted the teams driver line-up for next year remained a mystery with Red Bull the one’s to make a decision.
“He can’t drive for Toro Rosso because we have two race drivers who are doing a good job. What our driver pairing will be in 2012, I don’t know yet. This will be decided by Red Bull at the end of the season.”
