Pic negotiates with Toro Rosso for 2012
The Toro Rosso team could find itself at the heart of transfers for 2012, as the number of drivers vying for a seat in the Italian team continues to increase. Buemi and Alguersuari are obviously candidates for their own succession, and Vergne and Ricciardo, members of the Red Bull program, hope to take the place of the Swiss or the Spaniard for 2012. But Franz Tost has revealed that Charles Pic is also in discussions with his team for 2012.
Charles Pic finished in fourth place in the GP2 championship this season, behind Romain Grosjean, Luca Filippi, and Jules Bianchi, but the young Frenchman, who has been part of the Lagardère Unlimited structure for several weeks now, aims for F1 as early as 2012. With the support of Lagardère and Olivier Panis, Pic hopes to secure a seat in Formula 1 with a midfield team.
The Frenchman could notably test the STR6 during the young driver tests in Abu Dhabi at the end of the season and perhaps more for the next season if he manages to be sufficiently convincing. Pic’s profile could be interesting for the Toro Rosso team, as thanks to his partnership with Lagardère, he could bring around five million euros to the Italian team, which is not negligible even if Red Bull provides the majority of the team’s budget.
« We are indeed in negotiations with Charles Pic. We have met with Olivier Panis (Pic’s manager) and it should be decided in the coming days, » explains Franz Tost, the director of the Toro Rosso team, in today’s edition of the newspaper L’Equipe.
Tost also stated that there was a good possibility for Pic to take the wheel of the STR6 during the young driver tests to be held in Abu Dhabi in mid-November.
