“He was the golden child,” ex-American F1 driver trashes Red Bull for replacing him with Sebastian Vettel, vows to never race in F1
Scott Speed has fired some allegations against Sebastian Vettel as the four-time World Champion had taken away his seat at Toro Rosso in 2007.
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Red Bull and its sister team Toro Rosso, now rebranded as AlphaTauri, have seen many junior drivers graduate into Formula 1, and then take the exit from the pinnacle of motorsports because their results were not promising enough. RBR Chief Advisor Dr. Helmut Marko is known for scouting the best talents from the Red Bull Junior Academy, and then he offers them a seat in Formula 1–but if their scores fail to impress the Austrian, he quickly replaces them with others who are vying for the seat.
Recently, Helmut Marko revealed he has given an ultimatum to AlphaTauri’s Nyck deVries because of his lack of progress even after 5 races in his first F1 season as a regular driver. Now, former American F1 racer Scott Speed has revealed his experience as a Toro Rosso driver in 2007. Since his results did not see any improvement, his team simply called him and stated that Sebastian Vettel would take over.
Scott Speed had spent 1.5 years with Toro Rosso, and he could never earn them a single point. Thus, he was replaced after the European GP 2007. Recounting that time, Speed said on the Beyond the Grid podcast, “They called and said they were gonna put Vettel in the car. I thought ‘awesome’ because at that point Vettel was the golden child. I was thinking ‘great let’s get him in that thing’ and see what he does. Sure enough, Vettel qualified 19th (in the Hungarian Grand Prix). I don’t remember where he raced but it wasn’t amazing at all.“
Scott Speed had talks with Williams after Toro Rosso exit, but his heart wanted NASCAR
Sebastian Vettel debuted for Toro Rosso in 2007 when Scott Speed was asked to leave the team owing to his poor results. The German became a full-time racer for the Faenza squad in 2008, and made his way to Red Bull later. Once in the Milton-Keynes-based outfit, Vettel dominated F1 for four consecutive years, winning the F1 Championship over heavyweights like Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, etc.
But Scott Speed never forgot his spite against the Red Bull-Toro Rosso duo for dropping him too early into his F1 career. He revealed, “Then came opportunities, the meeting with Williams and the chance to race other stuff. But, ultimately I said ‘Man I want to go home. Can we race NASCAR?’” Ever since taking the exit from F1, Speed has contested in NASCAR, IndyCat, and even Formula E.
In other news, Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc has denies all rumors that he is leaving the Scuderia anytime soon. The Monegasque is an excellent driver with, what many fans claim, a Championship-winning ability. But due to Ferrari’s faults in supplying him a worthy car and also his own inconsistencies, he has failed to achieve a single title victory till now. But Leclerc has said he wants to win the season with Ferrari only, and he will not be moving to other teams in the near future.
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