The will-he-won’t-he saga of whether Scott Speed will drive for Toro Rosso in 2007 continues, with team boss Gerhard Berger doubting the American’s commitment to F1.

“I have to say Scott is still on pole position,” said Berger, when asked about his future driver line-up. “I believe that with his natural talent he can do a reasonable job. But he is not at a talent stage where he doesn’t need to work.

“He needs also to bring a commitment. If he has this, and he shows this, no problem. I think we will be very happy with the two guys.”

It’s all getting slightly wearing; still, it takes attention away from STR’s controversial 2007 car…

Meanwhile, Speed’s teammate (at the moment) Tonio Liuzzi is less than enthusiastic about the lack of testing the team have had.

Liuzzi, who has just renewed his contract with Toro Rosso, is hoping the Italian outfit won’t run a third driver in 2007, as he needs as much running as possible.

“I don’t know what we’ll do on Grand Prix Fridays, whether we’ll have a third driver, but I don’t think we will. For sure there won’t be Neel Jani anymore,” Liuzzi said.

“In my opinion it’s better that way: we need to drive ourselves; we’ve already lost three winter test sessions, a full month compared to the others. A disaster.”

STR are currently testing in Bahrain.

Lucas di Grassi restored the status quo on the second day of GP2 testing at Paul Ricard by putting ART back at the top of the timesheets in both sessions. Teammate Michael Ammermuller was fourth quickest in the morning and third quickest in the afternoon.
A1GP practice in Durban had to be ended early when part of the track began to break up, leaving Team France’s Loic Duval fastest. Richard Lyons was second quickest for Team Ireland, with championship leader Nico Hulkenberg third quickest.