Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsToro Rosso

Tost praise for 'fantastic' Toro Rosso pairing

Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost believes the pairing of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz is one of the strongest in the history of the team.

Red Bull's junior team has been used to give experience to young drivers in F1, with Sebastian Vettel the most successful driver to be produced by the system. Toro Rosso opted for an all-new rookie line-up of Verstappen and Sainz in 2015, with Daniil Kvyat having moved up to Red Bull and Jean-Eric Vergne dropped.

With Verstappen capping the first half of the season with fourth place in Hungary and Sainz having scored on four occasions, Tost says he has been impressed with the approach from both drivers.

"Both of our drivers have done a fantastic job and that is partly because of their commitment to Formula 1," Tost said. "They have a really positive attitude and Formula 1 is their life, which is clear from the fact they are in constant contact with their engineers, they spend a lot of time working on their physical condition.

"They are always asking questions and they have a strong work ethic. Formula 1 is their passion and that's the best route to success. I would say they are one of the most competitive pairings we have seen at Toro Rosso. Their learning curve is very steep."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.