Gasly gets F1 dream via text message

Pierre Gasly says he found out about his Toro Rosso drive for the Malaysian Grand Prix via text message on Monday night, as he prepares to take up Daniil Kvyat's race seat for future races.

Speaking at the FIA drivers’ press conference in Malaysia, the French driver said the call up was last minute following another successful weekend in his Super Formula title bid. Gasly moved to half a point off the championship lead ahead of the double-header season finale at Suzuka – which clashes with the United States Grand Prix.

"Of course I knew there were things going on with Red Bull but I didn’t know exactly what,” Gasly said. "And then I travelled from Japan on Monday - I was racing last weekend in Super Formula in Sugo and then I travelled from Tokyo on Monday to Malaysia."

Having impressed in Super Formula this year Gasly has been rumoured to be in line for Kvyat's seat since before the end of his GP2 championship win last season. However, the closed negotiations and decisions by Red Bull's junior programme manager, Helmut Marko, had left it as nothing more than rumours until he received a text earlier this week.

"When I got here I received a text saying that I might be driving this weekend. I got really excited about it, of course - tried to sleep Monday night although it was a bit difficult with all the excitement and then on Tuesday morning I had the confirmation that it was official and I was going to drive. So an amazing moment and great news."

Gasly described his call-up to Toro Rosso as "just a dream coming true for me."