Gasly unsure how many races he will get at Toro Rosso

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Pierre Gasly has confirmed that he's no more certain than anyone else just how many race outings he will get at Toro Rosso in 2017.

The team announced earlier this week that the young French driver would replace Daniil Kvyat this weekend in Malaysia. The press release spoke of Gasly taking part in races - plural - but did not clarify which ones.

It's expected that Gasly will stay in the race seat next week in Japan. However the following Grand Prix in the US clashes with the final round of Japanese Super Formula. That suggests Kvyat might be back in action at the Circuit of the Americas.

After that there remains a big question mark over who will be in the car for Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

"At the moment I don't know exactly what's going to happen in the next couple of weeks," Gasly himself admitted.

"I don't know how many races I'm going to do. There is nothing confirmed. The team told me to focus on this weekend and try to do my best."

Gasly added that he was sorry that Kvyat had been benched in order to make way for his own Formula 1 début.

Ocon gave Gasly his first break!

"I feel sorry for him, I think he's a really talented driver," he said. "Unfortunately, it's happening and I'm taking his seat.

"I'm pretty sure we will see him back on the grid at some point maybe," he added. "We will see what happens in the near future."

While uncertainty continues over who will be in the race seat, there are no such questions over the other stewardship of the team's other car.

With Jolyon Palmer insisting on seeing out his time at Renault, Carlos Sainz will remain with Toro Rosso for the rest of 2017.

"For now there is no worry," Sainz said in Malaysia. "At the moment I know that I will finish the season in Toro Rosso. It looks like that's going to happen."

Toro Rosso team boss Franz Tost has made it clear that he wants to hold on to the Spanish driver for as long as possible. He told Sainz on the team radio at Singapore how much he wanted him to stay.

"I appreciate Franz's confidence in me," Sainz responded.

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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.