Tuesday, Scuderia Toro Rosso, junior team of Red Bull Racing, announced that Pierre Gasly will be occupying the second STR seat alongside Carlos Sainz Jr. for the remainder of the 2017 season. The 21 year old French driver won the FIA GP2 championship in 2016, its last year before it was renamed Formula 2. He has elected to take driver number 10, according to GPUpdate, which was last used by Caterham's Kamui Kobayashi in 2014, and saw previous use by Gasly during his 2013 Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 season. In the STR press release, Gasly expressed his excitement for his Formula 1 debut with STR.
"This is a great opportunity for me," spoke Gasly, according to STR's release, "I feel as ready as I can be, having had to be prepared for anything in my role as Red Bull Racing's third driver this year. I will do my best to perform well with Scuderia Toro Rosso during these coming races."
The displaced Daniil Kvyat first drove in Formula 1 alongside Jean-Eric Vergne in 2014, at STR. He was promoted to Red Bull after 2014, with Sebastian Vettel's departure, approximately matching Daniel Ricciardo over the year. After a pair of first lap incidents in early 2016, however, Kvyat found himself the target of blame for two separate accidents involving Vettel, now at Ferrari. The former, where an aggressive, but legal move into turn one at China caused the two Ferrari drivers to come together, was chalked up as a racing incident, but the latter was more difficult to dismiss, as Kvyat twice rear-ended Vettel on lap one of the Russian Grand Prix, knocking Vettel out of the race.
These crashes are not officially attributable for the following demotion to STR, with Max Verstappen replacing Kvyat at Red Bull Racing at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, where he took his first win in his maiden race at Red Bull.
STR has yet to reply to our inquiry as to whether Kvyat has a chance to return to the junior team after Sainz leaves for Renault, or what factors led to the ruling in favor of Gasly's in-season substitution for Kvyat. Motorsport reports that Gasly will not drive at the United States Grand Prix, as he will be competing in the final round of this season's Super Formula championship, only a half point adrift of the championship. Kvyat seeing a reappearance for this race is, at present, unconfirmed.
Kvyat—whom we are likely safe in presuming will not drive for Red Bull again—becomes the first driver to drive for the organization's senior team not to win a race during his time there since David Coulthard, who ended his Formula 1 career after four winless years at Red Bull.