Toro Rosso takes Pierre Gasly to replace Daniil Kvyat in Malaysia

The 2016 GP2 Series champion Pierre Gasly, who currently competes in the Japanese Super Formula Championship, will make his Formula 1 debut this weekend at the Malaysian Grand Prix as a replacement for Daniil Kvyat in the Scuderia Toro Rosso.

As a Red Bull protege, Gasly is already tipped to join Red Bull’s second team for the next season. Kvyat’s poor performance in fourteen races of the 2017 season, which puts him to 19th place in the championship, gives Gasly a chance to enter the premier single-seater series much sooner.

Gasly is curently second in the Japanese Super Formula Championship

“Toro Rosso was established by Red Bull to bring youngsters from its junior programme into Formula 1 and that’s what we are doing by giving Pierre this chance. He is the next in line at Red Bull for this opportunity and he has shown that he deserves it, having taken the 2016 GP2 title and this year being very competitive in the Super Formula series in Japan. He really has a valid chance of winning the title, as he is only half a point behind the leader.

The driver switch gives us an opportunity to make a more informed decision regarding our 2018 driver choices. For a variety of reasons, some of them due to technical problems, but others being mistakes of his own making, Daniil has not really shown his true potential so far this year, which is why we are standing him down for the next races. This will give us the opportunity to evaluate Pierre on track during a proper race weekend,” Toro Rosso team boss Franz Tost said.

Gasly is expected to drive in Malaysia and Japan. After that, he will be unable to race in the US Grand Prix because the event clashes with the Super Formula season’s finale at Suzuka Circuit, in which he can take the championship title.