Vergne: Red Bull's call to Hartley "makes me laugh"

Same. Vergne seem likeable enough, and more importantly he looked almost on par with Ricciardo, and that aint a bad thing.

Best JEV could do here, is shut up and enjoy the show, instead of burning any bridges left.

Thinking about it a bit more; Vergne comments are misplaced because toro rosso gives an change to a lot of talent. When he was driving for TR he came across as a good driver however to drive in the Redbull you have to be better than just good; The notion that he was replaced by a better driver (Verstappen replaced him) is never a easy one to swallow. Hartley did not replace Verstappen, he replaced kyvat and he needs time to get used to F1. Although this comment was mostly aimed at Redbull it's not complementing Hartley.

So Vergne .. a question ... if Hartley was so bad why did they resign him instead of you?

@BOUDY You forget that it was between Vergne and Kvyat when it came to that RB seat, and RB chose Kvyat despite Vergne being a consistent and decently fast driver. He didnt compete against Max, it was Kvyat he competed with. It was apparent that it was Red Bull or out for him, and they ditched him.

As for that last part: Vergne is out from Red Bull. Hartley isnt. Vergne is thus not even an option for them anymore.

I like Hartley and while he hasn't impressed me yet, I still think he could be impress. But it's pretty clear the the Red Bull young driver pipeline was pretty dry, so they went back to Hartley.

I didn't know Vergne said that in the interivew. Again, surprising that they would go after Buemi ahead of Vergne. That being said, it's also very telling that nobody expressed interest in Vergne after it was confirmed he'd leave Red Bull.

He spent a year as Ferrari reserve, and there were some that was surprised that Renault offered Magnussen the seat ahead of Vergne. I rated him higher than Kvyat, but it could be a personality issue. The interview touched upon his mistakes, and how he handled things while in F1. Seems he's happy where he is now so good for him. Many Formula E drivers seem really happy to be part of that championship, apparently they're really enjoying the racing. Rosenqvist also said so.

The most talented drivers from Red Bull, haven't really come up through the ranks of the Red Bull program. Vettel was a BMW driver, and Verstappen a Mercedes driver. They were snatched up by Red Bull late in the game and only started driving for RBR/STR when in F1. Out of the other drivers in the Red Bull program only two have been treated halfway decent - Ricciardo and Sainz. Vergne and Buemi are both talented drivers, but they were not treated right by Helmut. Then of course there is Kvyat, and while I rate Vergne and Buemi higher, Kvyat is the one I really feel sorry for because of the way Helmut stepped on him.

@kean not sure if verstappen was a Mercedes supported driver. He was supported by his father but showed talent in every series before F1. When he finished with carts he tested a open seater and moved straight to F3. But before that he did an winter series in Usa which was done by Ferrari in which he progressed every time he started on a new circuit. When he finished on the 1st position 6 times in a row in F3 the options were Mercedes or Redbull. Only Redbull offered an straight F1 drive with TR even bypassing Sainz jnr. Redbull started sponsorship of him after the Norris ring. The attitude of drivers around him towards that part of the season changed and they were trying to proof that they could beat a F1 driver.

Driver rating is always difficult but I don't feel sorry for kyvat he was given plenty of opportunity to show that he's capable. Redbull is one of the only teams that really does bring drivers to F1 however sometimes they just aren't good enough for their main team.