Vettel’s debut in Toro Rosso? Scott Speed ​​explains it: “I said ‘fuck off’ to Tost. The next race Seb was in the car”

Vettel’s rise The 2007 season marked Sebastian Vettel’s debut in Formula 1. The story behind his first race in the Circus, contested at the wheel of BMWs, is well known: the then very young German talent took the place of Robert Kubica – who had been injured in a terrifying accident in the Canadian GP in Montreal – and competed in the Indianapolis race, taking an extraordinary eighth place and with it his first world championship point. Less known, however, is perhaps the even more decisive step for Vettel’s career: his transfer within the Red Bull family and his debut behind the wheel of Toro Rosso, which took place almost two months later, on the occasion of the Hungarian GP. Revealing a curious background in this regard was the driver who was dismounted to make room for Vettel, the American Scott Speed. Guest on the podcast The Dale Jr. Download, hosted by former NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr, Speed spoke about his experience in F1 and his significant character and behavioral shortcomings that led him to waste his chance in the Circus: “I could have done many things differently. I had no communication skills, no real training, I didn’t know how the world worked at all – said Speed, who was ‘raised’ in the Red Bull Academy and made his F1 debut in 2006 but without never managing to get a championship point – I never had a clear idea of the influence I had as a driver. I thought I would just sit in the car and be fast, but I didn’t know why.” The clash with Tost The negative turning point in his career – which instead paved the way for Vettel – occurred after the 2007 European GP, ​​held at the Nürburgring and conditioned in the very early stages by a torrential downpour which caused half the grid to end up in gravel in turn 1, including Speed ​​himself. After the race the Californian had a tough face-to-face confrontation with Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost: “I was talking to my engineer and he came and asked me what had happened at turn 1 – said Speed – and I thought ‘what does he mean?’. I mean: there were eight cars that had gone out at that point. Hamilton, Button had also gone off the track… so I replied: ‘The same thing that happened to everyone else, there was aquaplaning’. But he replied: ‘Not to everyone, only to idiots’. At that point I told him to go screw himself and left. The following race weekend, Sebastian Vettel was behind the wheel of my car.” “I was just an arrogant kid. I thought I could say something like that to the team principal and that everything would be fine. But it wasn’t like that – added Speed ​​– I simply didn’t have the skills to understand what it took to be successful at that level.”