F1 'very much' part of Gasly's future - Horner

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Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says Pierre Gasly can definitely have a future in F1 despite being overlooked for a 2017 race seat.

Toro Rosso has traditionally been the proving ground for new young Red Bull drivers, with Gasly targeting a seat with the team after securing the 2016 GP2 title. However, with that championship only being won at the final round in Abu Dhabi, Toro Rosso had already opted to retain its current line-up of Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat.

While Gasly is now in limbo - linked with a Super Formula driver as GP2 champions are not allowed to defend their title - Horner says the Frenchman remains part of the set-up because he is so highly regarded by Red Bull.

"Gasly has done a great job this year," Horner said. "It was good to see him win the GP2 championship. He has done important work for us and development work for us this year.

"There is not a seat available for him in F1 at the moment but he is the most senior member of the junior team, and is being retained by us because we rate him extremely highly. So whatever the future holds for him, F1 can still very much be part of that future."

Gasly would be following Stoffel Vandoorne's lead if he moves to Super Formula, with the 2015 GP2 champion racing in Japan this year before being handed a McLaren race seat for 2017.

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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.