Posted on 26th November 2014
Jean-Eric Vergne leaves Toro Rosso
It was announced this afternoon that Jean-Eric Vergne has confirmed he is leaving Toro Rosso after three years with the team.
Earlier on in the season, Vergne's future in the sport looked under threat when the team named Max Verstappen as one of their two drivers for 2015, with the teenager poised to become the youngest driver in history when he debuts in March’s Australian GP at the age of 17.
However, the appointment of Daniil Kvyat as Sebastian Vettel’s successor at Red Bull had appeared to offer Vergne a lifeline at Toro Rosso following the team’s initial declaration that Kvyat and Verstappen would be their 2015 driver line-up.
Vergne finished the 2014 campaign a respectable 13th in the Drivers’ Championship after scoring 22 of Toro Rosso’s 30 points during the year. However, despite the 23-year-old’s strong finish to the season, it appears that Toro Rosso, Red Bull’s feeder team are intent on introducing another fresh face to the grid.
In a statement on his official Twitter account this aftenoon, Vergne announced that he was departing Toro Rosso as follows:-
“Despite a good season & 22 pts, I’ll not drive anymore for Toro Rosso in 2015. Thanks for those years. Let’s go for another big challenge.â€
Even though it is sad for Vergne to leave Toro Rosso in the manner that he has, I have to say that I have been expecting this news. As I have argued over the season, I believe that Vergne is a talented driver but sadly through no fault of his own due to failures on the car occurring or not taking the opportunity to deliver or perform on the track when he could.
And this is what ultimately has cost him his drive for the Toro Rosso team for next season. I can understand why Toro Rosso have decided not to keep Vergne after giving him three years to prove himself in the sport. But as I have already mentioned, some of these have been Vergne's fault, some haven't. But if you cannot perform in Formula One to the standard that is required, then you are sadly shown the door and that is what has happened in Vergne's case.
In October, the Toro Rosso team that they had drawn up a short-list of Vergne, Carlos Sainz Jr, Pierre Gastly or Alex Lynn to be Verstappen’s team-mate for 2015. And with the news that Vergne is departing the team and Sainz Jr having an impressive test session on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi, he is now looking the favourite to secure the drive after his success in the Formula Renault 3.5 series where he was crowned champion, alongside Verstappen at Toro Rosso next season.
However, it has been made clear in the past few days that Williams have dismissed speculation that the Frenchman could join the team as their new third driver as a replacement for Felipe Nasr following the Brazilian’s promotion to a race seat at Sauber.
So this raises the question of what is next for Vergne and his career? It is a long shot but I can see Vergne if he can still remaining in the sport as a reserve driver if the opportunity presented itself or even going to the WEC championship to drive for either Porsche or Toyota if the speculation about him moving to the series appears to be true or even confirmed.
But overall despite knowing that Vergne was going to be leaving Toro Rosso at the end of the season, it is a shame that his career in Formula One could be potentially over in this way. I still Vergne has done enough in the second half of the season to stay with the team and is talented enough to be there, but it would appear that Toro Rosso feel that a new driver line up is needed to move the team into the future after giving in their eyes Vergne his final chance this season to show what he can do in the car.
To me, Vergne has shown that if he has the car underneath him, he can deliver just as well as anyone else and scoring 22 points compared to Kvyat this season for Toro Rosso to finish seventh says a lot for me, despite my reservations about Vergne's performances and his future in Formula One throughout the season.
But I really hope that Vergne is given a chance in some capacity to remain in the sport as I feel with his experience he could have a lot to offer any team on the grid. But if not, then Vergne needs to select the options that are available to him that will allow him to go racing competitively and show the talent that got him into Formula One in the first place and I wish him the best of luck for the future in whatever he does in his career.
