While Daniil Kvyat’s place in the Red Bull programme might be in tatters, Carlos Sainz remains on track.
That is the view of Dr Helmut Marko, the architect of Red Bull’s controversial driver programme that is speeding Max Verstappen to F1 glory and putting Russian Kvyat’s future in jeopardy.
Now driving for Toro Rosso, Kvyat had a bad Sunday in Monaco, incurring a grid penalty for Canada in two weeks by crashing with Kevin Magnussen.
But his Spanish teammate Sainz, on the other hand, is still on track for a bright future, Marko said.
"Carlos Sainz is doing a great job at Toro Rosso and I’m sure his chance will come," he told the Movistar broadcaster.
"I don’t know when, but it will come."
Some insiders believe that Red Bull could drop Kvyat at the end of the year in order to open a Toro Rosso seat for the next young hotshoe, Pierre Gasly.
"I’m not so pessimistic," Igor Ermilin, a presidential advisor of the Russian automobile federation, told Ria Novosti news agency when considering Kvyat’s future.
"There are still 15 races, giving him the opportunity to demonstrate his talent, his ability to handle pressure and his desire to fight.
"I think he can prove that he still has a place in F1, all the more with the contracts of many drivers ending at the end of the season," Ermilin added.