Speed out, Vettel in?
It seems that there is some bad blood between Scuderia Toro Rosso drivers Scott Speed and Vitatonio Liuzzi and the bosses of the 'party team' Franz Tost and Gerhard Berger. According to Speed, Tost and Berger are trying everything to get rid of the driving pair for 2008 while the Toro Rosso bosses want their drivers to live up to their potential. In the meantime Toro Rosso is openly flirting with Sébastian Bourdais and Sebastian Vettel.
On the Speed TV website Scott Speed said: "Gerhard and Franz have their own ideas about what they want to do with their future, and they say things accordingly. That's nothing to do with my performance on the track, that's for sure. It's clear that from my bosses me and Tonio both have very little support.
It's been that way for the last two years, and it's a lot more now. At some point I said I don't care - if I'm not in F1 next year, if I'm with a different team, it's OK for me. It's actually made me lot more relaxed and a lot more calm, and I think I'm producing better results, actually.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to read the press and know that Franz and Gerhard are pushing like hell to get rid of me and Tonio."
Gerhard Berger told Auto Motor und Sport: "We were the only team that lost both cars to accidents. That is unacceptable."
Team Principal Franz Tost said: "In free practice our drivers do decent lap times, but the closer to qualifying we come, the slower they go."
In the meantime the Scuderia Toro Rosso is openly flirting with three times Champ Car Champion, Sébastien Bourdais, who tested for the Faenza-based team at Spa-Francorchamps, and with BMW Sauber's test and reserve driver, Sebastian Vettel.
It appears that the team wants Vettel to test the STR2 this week and if BMW releases the youngster, it's possible he'll race for Toro Rosso in Hungry, taking the race seat of Scott Speed.
There has been some bad blood between Toro Rosso and their drivers since the debut of the season. Especially Scott Speed has had difficulties with both Toro Rosso bosses. The American had to wait until February to get his 2007 contract with the team and after the row with Berger and Tost this weekend, it's possible that Speed drove his last GP for Toro Rosso.
