Tost hopes Gasly will stay: "Hope to drive with Pierre and Yuki"

Within Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri there is a lot of confidence in Yuki Tsunoda, but the young Japanese driver has made some stupid mistakes in the first half of the season. Helmut Marko has already criticised the rookie on several occasions. Nevertheless his team boss Franz Tost hopes to work with Tsunoda in 2022 as well.

Where Pierre Gasly impressed during the first eleven Grands Prix of the season, Tsunoda is a lot more changeable. It earned him 18 points and a current thirteenth place in the world championship. Teammate Gasly now has 50 points.

"Both drivers, in my opinion, have enough confidence so I don't see any reason to change anything about this line-up during the summer break. Pierre is doing a fantastic job and Yuki is also doing well as a newcomer, although he still has to gain some experience and learn a lot. But that's nothing special. That's logical with young drivers. That is the risk you take when you take on a rookie," says Tost in conversation with Formule1.nl.

Other candidates at AlphaTauri?

Tsunoda's luck may also be that there isn't that much competition from the Red Bull Junior Team at the moment. At least, not according to Tost. "I don't see any other drivers and hope that next year we will drive with Pierre and Yuki."

Helmut Marko is however quite impressed with Liam Lawson, he revealed this weekend.

Lawson is currently in eighth place in Formula 2 after 58 points. Other Red Bull drivers in the rookie class include Jüri Vips (fifth) and Jehan Daruvala (ninth). It's possible that an extra spot will become available at AlphaTauri unexpectedly for these juniors if Marko decides to transfer Gasly to Red Bull.