Tost: Speed replaced over performance

Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost has said Scott Speed was replaced at the Italian squad because he wasn't performing as expected

Speed has been replaced by German Sebastian Vettel for the remaining part of the season following the European Grand Prix, where the American and Tost were involved in an altercation.

Speed accused Tost of having grabbed him by the neck following a heated discussing after he had spun out of the race.

The driver said after the race that "you couldn't pay me enough money to race for those two people (Tost and Gerhard Berger) again".

Tost, however, has said that Speed was replaced because of his performances.

"The progress of his performance wasn't done in the way we expected," said Tost in Hungary when asked why Speed wasn't racing in Hungary.

Berger added: "I don't want to spend one more second talking about Scott Speed. That's history. He didn't perform and that's why he isn't here anymore.

"We want to get quiet in the team - we have a good atmosphere and everything is working well. Okay, we have difficult circumstances, but overall we are happy with what we are doing. We are trying to do our best."

Berger added that there would be no pressure on Vettel this weekend, with the 20-year-old not having driven the Toro Rosso car before.

"There is no pressure at all on Sebastian," said Berger. "He is with us long term and everybody wants to know how he will do in this race - but he's never even tested with us before and we'd have liked to have had him in the car before the race but it doesn't matter because he's long term. It's important that he develops himself over the next one and a half years.

"Sebastian has been driving since he was 12 as a Red Bull driver. The last few months and year he's had more experience of F1 with BMW and has shown good performance in racing. So overall, he brought a package to the team which is good for us. He's back in the Red Bull family so it's a logical choice."