Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsToro Rosso

No problem between Toro Rosso drivers, insists Tost

Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost has told F1i that there's no lingering tension at the team between Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz after Singapore.

In the closing laps at Marina Bay, Verstappen was given a team order from the pit wall to allow Sainz to get past so that the Spaniard could have a shot at overtaking the Force India of Sergio Perez ahead which had been keeping both Toro Rossos bottled up.

Verstappen refused point blank, and while Sainz said afterwards that there were no bad feelings he nonetheless made headlines by saying that Verstappen "likes to play the bad boy role."

But asked by F1i about the prospect of damaging tensions escalating between the pair at the team's headquarters in Faenza, Italy, Tost brushed aside any such concerns.

"There is absolutely no issue between the drivers after what happened in Singapore," Tost said.

"They have a good relationship, a professional relationship as you could see in Suzuka at the end when Max - on the soft tyres - got the chance to overtake Carlos who was on the hard tyres and they finished in ninth and tenth."

There has been speculation that Sainz might be losing out in the psychological war against his younger team mate, who just turned 18 and immediately passed his road driving test on the same day.

But Tost said that there was no reason why Sainz should now have to forcibly stake out his claim and stand his ground in the remaining five races of the 2015 season.

"I don't think it's a case of having to respond. It always depends how the car is and in which position they are and which tyres they are on.

"Both drivers so far have shown really, really good performance."

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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.