Toro Rosso’s chiefs have now denied speculation that they are trying to prise Sebastian Vettel away from BMW and into the Faenza based team’s 2007 driver lineup.
It was reported earlier this week that the teenaged German could replace America’s Scott Speed as soon as the French GP in July.
A spokesman for his current employer BMW reacted at the time that the Munich based manufacturer does not “comment on speculation”.
The rumour appeared credible, however, given Toro Rosso’s less-than-secret disappointment with Speed, and the fact that Vettel remains under long term contract to Dietrich Mateschitz’s Red Bull empire.
STR co-owner Gerhard Berger, however, bluntly told Sport Bild: “There is no plan to replace Speed.”
And in the specialist magazine Auto Motor und Sport, team principal Franz Tost is understood to have insisted that Toro Rosso is not attempting to lure Vettel from BMW.