05/09/2016
NEWS STORY
Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko has dismissed claims that GP2 Championship leader Pierre Gasly will replace Daniil Kvyat at Toro Rosso at the forthcoming Singapore Grand Prix.
The claims were based on comments the French youngster is alleged to have made to the Spanish media, and come days after he admitted that he would have no hesitation quitting GP2 - and therefore the title - for an F1 seat.
Asked about the claim, Marko asked Sky Sports F1 "Who said that?"
Told that, according to the Spanish media it was Gasly himself, the Austrian said "absolute rubbish".
"Kvyat will have his chance to recover," he continued, "and we won't make any decision until mid-October, who will have the seat next year at Toro Rosso.
"It's news to me," he said, in reference to Gasly's alleged comments, "believe me, I will be on the phone to him.
Meanwhile, Gasly, who finished 4th in the feature race at Monza and 2nd in the sprint race, thereby maintaining a 10 point championship lead, took to Twitter to explain.
"Better to make it clear now, never said I would replace Daniil in Singapore," he tweeted, "just said that I hope to get my opportunity in F1 asap."
Whether that was enough to appease Marko remains to be seen but the Austrian quashed any hopes of even an FP1 appearance.
"We decide who is sitting in the car," he said, "and he also won't be in the car on a Friday. He will be in the simulator on a Friday, but not in the car."
Returning to the subject of Kvyat, Marko sounded uncharacteristically sympathetic.
"Whatever goes wrong, goes wrong on his car," he said. "So it wouldn't be fair to judge him on what happens so far.
"We are patient, and hopefully all this bad luck will stop and if we have enough information we will make our decision.
Asked about the Gasly rumour, Kvyat said: "I think Marko explained it well enough, so it's fine.
"There are many options and so on," he continued. "Let's wait and see. When the time will come we will talk about everything behind closed doors.
"We have had two races where we knew we would not have a chance, and now we have a few races where we have a chance. We'll see how we'll get on and I will have more information after that. For now, I'm just doing my job, enjoying what I'm doing... and I love what I'm doing."