Toro Rosso line up Hartley and Gasly for 2018
Team to switch to Honda engines next season
>> LONDON: New Zealander Brendon Hartley and French driver Pierre Gasly will race for Toro Rosso next season, the Red Bull-owned Formula One team said on Thursday.
Hartley, a Le Mans 24 Hours sportscar winner with Porsche and double world endurance champion, was drafted in to the team last month and will be starting his first full F1 season in 2018.
So too will Gasly, who made his debut in Malaysia at the beginning of October.
“It’s very satisfying to have converted an opportunity that came as a surprise into a 2018 F1 drive, I couldn’t be happier,” said Hartley, who got his break when Toro Rosso were casting around for a US Grand Prix stand-in.
“I’d like to thank Red Bull and Toro Rosso for believing in me and giving me this second chance — dreams can come true,” added the 28-yearold, who tested with the team as a teenager.
Carlos Sainz had left for Renault and Gasly, the Spaniard’s replacement, had other commitments in Japan where he was competing for the Super Formula title.
That left Toro Rosso needing to find another driver, having already recalled Russian Daniil Kvyat. Hartley impressed and was confirmed alongside Gasly to the end of the season, with Kvyat leaving.
Team principal Franz Tost said both rookies had shown they had what it takes.
“We have been truly impressed by their steep learning curves. As we know, F1 is something that not all drivers can adapt to this fast,” said the Austrian.
“Therefore, we’re looking forward to having a full year with them; One where we can hopefully provide them with a good package which, combined with driver consistency, can surely put them in the best possible situation to deliver.”
Toro Rosso are switching from Renault to Honda engines next season and are fighting the French manufacturer and US-owned Haas team for sixth place in the constructors’ championship.
Renault are j ust f our points behind Toro Rosso and two clear of Haas with the difference between sixth and eighth places measured in millions of dollars when it comes to revenue payments.
Neither Hartley nor Gasly has scored a point so far, with the former set to start his fourth race of the season in Abu Dhabi next week and the Frenchman his fifth.
SCHUMI’S CAR SETS RECORD
Michael Schumacher’s Grand Prixwinning Ferrari sold for US$7.5 million (approximately 246 million baht) in New York on Thursday, setting an auction record for a modern-era Formula One car, Sotheby’s said.
The seven-time world champion’s 2001 Ferrari F2001 sparked furious bidding, roaring past its pre-sale estimate of $4-5 million at Sotheby’s flagship post-war and contemporary November evening art sale.
It put the buzz into a night that otherwise fell short of the dizzying heights reached by Christie’s on Wednesday selling a painting of Christ attributed to Leonardo da Vinci for a record $450.3 million.
Sotheby’s said it was the first time that a rare automobile was included in an art auction and the decision appeared popular.
The sleek, low-slung, fire-engine red vehicle may not have been a work of art, but Gregoire Billault, senior Sotheby’s vice president, called it “the very best racing car ever sold at an auction.”
The German racing legend has not been seen in public since suffering serious head injuries in a skiing accident in 2013.