In an interview with the media yesterday, Toro Rosso driver Jean-Eric Vergne has hinted he would consider racing in other disciplines if he fails to secure an alternative drive on the 2015 grid.
Vergne’s three-year stint in Red Bull’s junior F1 team will come to end after the current campaign, when teenaged Formula 3 prodigy Max Verstappen will replace him. Vergne has publicly reiterated he is still fully focused on securing his F1 future, but suggested that he would look at alternative categories if no F1 drives became available.
In his interview with the media yesterday, when asked if his focus was purely on F1, Vergne said the following:-
‘There are so many drivers who wanted to focus on F1 and got nowhere. So I am not stupid – I have my eyes open I would say.’
As Vergne rightly states there are so many drivers looking to get into Formula One and they either have made it or they haven’t been able to obtain a drive. It would appear that Vergne understands the current situation with how the driver market is shaping up and is open to exploring all the available options that he has in front of him.
Fellow former STR driver Sebastien Buemi has successfully switched to sportscars with Toyota while becoming a reserve driver for Red Bull’s F1 team.
Further on in his interview, Vergne said his present focus was continuing to race in F1 rather than consider becoming a reserve. Vergne added the following:-
‘I would really love to race. It depends on the chance I will get to drive in a race, but at the moment my focus is on getting a race seat.’
Of course there is no question that Vergne wants to remain in Formula One for next season and for as long as he possibly can. And that has to be his objective. Vergne now has to start performing on the circuit as much as possibly can in order to keep himself in the running for a race seat with a team for 2015.
Vergne reckons his former STR team-mate Daniel Ricciardo’s excellent form since graduating to Red Bull should remind F1 teams that he is potentially capable of similar feats if given the right opportunity.
In the latter stages of his interview, when how realistic he felt his chances of remaining in F1 were, Vergne replied with the following:-
‘It’s difficult to say. If the key people in some teams trust me, and trust that I can make it [then I have a chance]. Doing three years here [at Toro Rosso] makes me very strong.
‘Daniel [Ricciardo] in a way is a good help for me because some teams expect world champion drivers, but maybe [the future] is not in world champion drivers, but in younger drivers who are really hungry and motivated, and that’s what I am.
‘When you look at my results compared to Daniel all of our career, I have the potential to be what he is.’
As Vergne admits himself, it is difficult to say what will happen over the course of the next few weeks regarding his future in Formula One. It is clear that the three years experience he has gained in Toro Rosso would be an advantage for a team who would like to sign him for next year and could prove to be beneficial.
In regards to what Vergne has stated about Ricciardo, the results that both drivers have achieved are both valid in their own right. However, Ricciardo has performed enough to be promoted in the Red Bull Young Driver Programme and Vergne sadly has not. But don’t get me wrong, Vergne is a talented driver but he just hasn’t grabbed the opportunity when it was presented to him.
Vergne could now use this as a benchmark to encourage and motivate himself to perform on the circuit for the rest of the season and to try and gain a race seat for next season. And from what I can see, Vergne is still motivated and hungry to achieve the best result possible on track for as long as he stays in Formula One.
And overall, Vergne has to show on the track that he has that desire to succeed in Formula One for the rest of the season and has to deliver if he has any chance of staying on the grid next season. The time is now for Vergne to show what he can do and remind the paddock why he got the Toro Rosso drive in the first place. He has simply to got to deliver and deliver now.
