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Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost believes that Jean-Eric Vergne will remain with the team next season.
Vergne has been with Toro Rosso since the start of 2012 and was one of the contenders for the vacant seat at Red Bull.
But Red Bull team principal Christian Horner effectively ruled Vergne out of the running by declaring that it was 'too early' for the Frenchman to join the senior team.
Tost is sure that Vergne can remain with the junior team next season.
"I’m convinced that Jean-Eric Vergne will race next year for Toro Rosso," he said.
"We must not forget that Jean-Eric came later into Formula One [than Daniel Ricciardo] and why Red Bull Racing is thinking about racing with Ricciardo next year, it’s simply because he is more experienced, he showed very good performance in the first half of the season but Jean-Eric Vergne is quite close to him."
"It’s not that Jean-Eric is out of the team. As far as I’m thinking, next year he is with Toro Rosso."
Tost also said he is unsure regarding their 2014 line-up.
"We will see. It’s not decided yet from Red Bull but we must not forget Dietrich Mateschitz and Red Bull bought Minardi in those days to give young drivers from the Red Bull driver pool a chance to come into Formula One."
"Toro Rosso is the team to educate young drivers and I see it as positive because it shows that a) drivers are skilled and b) that the team has done so far a good job – and therefore if they choose Daniel I am quite happy with this decision."
