A year ago, it was unthinkable to Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost that Alex Albon would be driving a Red Bull RB15 in 2019. But now that’s the case, Tost has a job to do: rebuilding the confidence of Pierre Gasly after his demotion from the senior squad to make way for the Thai driver. “It was not that Alex Albon was not on our radar as he had already won F2 races, we talked about him. Twelve months later, that he’s sitting in a Red Bull? I didn’t expect it to be honest,” said Tost after Albon’s first race in a Red Bull RB15, the Belgian Grand Prix, in which he recovered from 17th on the grid to finish fifth. PODCAST: Alex Albon on going up against Verstappen, his quickest rival and more

If a driver is coming back from Red Bull to Toro Rosso he is shocked and demotivated and he’s lost confidence Franz Tost

The upshot of that blockbuster move was that Pierre Gasly, who had only joined Red Bull this season as Daniel Ricciardo’s replacement, had to move back to Toro Rosso, where he spent his rookie season in 2018. As always, it took a toll on the returning driver, something that Tost has witnessed before after Daniil Kvyat was dropped from Red Bull for Max Verstappen in 2016. “If a driver is coming back from Red Bull to Toro Rosso he is shocked and demotivated and he’s lost confidence,” said Tost. “The job from the team and from my side is to help them, support them and to bring together all the ingredients they need to perform as well as they did beforehand. Because Red Bull Racing took them when they were successful with us,” he said.

Gasly scored a battling ninth place on his Toro Rosso return in Belgium