A dark cloud hangs over Scott Speed’s formula one future after he claims he was assaulted by team boss Franz Tost.
Despite reports that the American driver will be immediately replaced by Sebastian Vettel, however, a spokesperson for the team insists that 23-year-old Speed is scheduled to test the STR2 car at Mugello both on Wednesday and Thursday.
Indeed, it has emerged that he has in fact travelled to the Italian circuit near Florence.
But prior to taking to the Ferrari-powered single seater, he has revealed further details about his altercation with Tost in the Nurburgring pits after spinning last Sunday.
Speed told Speed TV that after a verbal argument with Tost, “he hit me in the middle of the back with a closed fist. Everyone in the team saw it”.
The Californian says Tost then followed him behind the garage partitions and “grabbed me from the front of my shirt, jerked me around and pushed me against the wall”.
Speed said he then told other team officials, including co-owner Gerhard Berger, that “if my team chief ever touches me again, I’m going to knock him out”.
He admits that his formula one future is essentially now over, but hoped his relationship with STR’s co-owner Red Bull is not permanently damaged.
But referring to Tost and Berger, Speed asserted: “You couldn’t pay me enough money to race for those two people again.”
