I begin to wonder what the Toro Rosso bosses think they are playing at. To keep contracted drivers in suspense while they try out everyone else who looks as if he could hold a steering wheel has to be bad policy at the least. It was just this kind of dithering that led to Alonso leaving Renault for McLaren.

Of course, I realize that Sebastien Bourdais, the most recent to have a test with the team, is not really in the frame; he has stated repeatedly that he will drive for Newman/Haas in Champ Cars next year. But what purpose is served by letting STR’s existing drivers wait until the last moment to find out whether their contracts will be honored? If nothing else, it shows that the team does not have full confidence in their choice of drivers.

That has to have an effect on Scott Speed and Vitantonio Liuzzi. To know that their bosses are looking for someone better must erode their confidence and does nothing for relationships within the team. I can understand Spyker’s delay in filling their second seat – Tiago Monteiro did not exactly set the world alight in 2006, after all. But Toro Rosso’s indecision looks completely unnecessary.

Both Liuzzi and Speed showed great promise this season. It is hard to evaluate them without a known-quantity driver alongside but they seemed to get the best out of a car that was not expected to perform as well as it did. Since there are no obvious budding Michael Schumachers out there, the best option for the Scuderia would be to confirm their drivers and get down to preparation for next year.

I don’t think that Gerhard Berger is the problem. He has hinted often enough that there will be no surprises in the driver line-up. It seems to be Dietrich Mateschitz, Red Bull and Toro Rosso boss, who is being slow to make up his mind. I guess when you’re one of the richest people in the world, you don’t give a schitz how a couple of lowly F1 drivers feel.

I like Gerhard Berger’s style. He was a great racer in his driving days, perhaps one of the few whose ego could survive being teammate to Ayrton Senna, even beating the great man on rare occasions. The stories of practical jokes played on each other are the perfect illustration of the mutual respect between them.

So it is good to see Gerhard running the Toro Rosso team in the same way – cheerfully independent and determined to succeed. The struggle with parent team, Red Bull, over Vitantonio Liuzzi’s services (which Toro Rosso won) shows that Gerhard is quite prepared to fight Toro Rosso’s corner against the guys who supply the money. I can imagine, too, the smile on Gerhard’s face at those races in 2006 where his cars embarrased Red Bull’s by being quicker.

It is no surprise, therefore, to read of Gerhard’s insistence that Toro Rosso will design and build their own car for next season. There may have been suspicions that they would run the same chassis as Red Bull in 2007 (and some teams were getting ready to protest this) but that is not Gerhard’s style. I know what he’d like to do – beat Red Bull. It stands to reason that the man who spent most of his driving career trying to beat the best should continue that habit as a manager.

He might well have the tools to do it, too. If his team can produce an effective chassis, they are in with a chance, even though Red Bull’s engineering team is now very strong with the addition of Adrian Newey and others. Minardi demonstrated on several occasions that it is possible to design a good car on a shoestring budget – their problem was always that they never had as powerful an engine as other teams. Toro Rosso could get it right in the same way.

There is nothing wrong with their power plant as well. The Ferrari engine is at least as powerful and reliable as the Renault – the trick is in mating it effectively to the chassis so as to make best use of its characteristics. Admittedly, no-one has managed to do this as well as the Ferrari team so far but it has to happen sooner or later, even if by accident.

Then there is the matter of drivers – and here it’s youth against experience. Red Bull have two proven warriors in Webber and Coulthard, both of them capable of winning races and with enormous depth of experience. Toro Rosso’s Liuzzi and Speed are young, enthusiastic and have a learning year behind them. All other things being equal, you would expect the veterans to beat the newbies – but things are never equal. If the Toro Rosso is good, the drivers could do the job.

Next season is shaping up to be one of the most interesting for years. And the struggle between Red Bull and Toro Rosso could be one of the talking points. Red Bull insist that Toro Rosso is a part of their empire but independent of their control – if Gerhard’s boys start beating their sister team regularly, Red Bull might just have to grin and bear it.

A while back there was a rumor that Scott Speed was going to be replaced in the Toro Rosso team for 2007. This was denied very quickly by the team and since then there have been no further rumblings. However, it does highlight the fact that Scott is not generally given much credit for his performance this year, whereas the brief tussle between Toro Rosso and Red Bull over which team should have Vitantonio Liuzzi’s services next year would indicate that the Italian is pretty highly regarded.

In view of this, you would think that Liuzzi had comprehensively trounced his American teammate in 2006. Yet a study of their results for the season shows a somewhat different picture.

In qualifying, Liuzzi grabbed a higher grid slot at twelve races, Speed managed to outpace him six times. Which looks bad for Scott until we separate the year into two halves. In the first half, Liuzzi outqualified Speed eight times and Speed managed to get the drop on him only once. But, in the second half, the figures are Liuzzi 4, Speed 5. That speaks of a remarkable improvement in Scott’s speed (if you’ll pardon the pun) – suddenly he is at least on a par with his supposedly-quick teammate.

If we then turn to the races, disregarding DNFs (Did Not Finish) as they are not always the driver’s fault (and anyway they had the same number of retirements – 4 each), we find that Liuzzi finished higher than Speed at five races and Speed beat him the same number of times. The same swing of the pendulum that we noted in qualifying is also apparent here – Scott finished higher than Liuzzi only once in the first half of the season but notched up four thereafter.

Of course, we should remember that you can prove anything with statistics, but these figures make it pretty clear that, judged by results, there is little to choose between the two drivers. In fact, you would be wiser to put your money on Speed since he exhibits a learning process and is likely to get better with time. Yes, he made a few mistakes in his first season but so does any driver new to F1. The point is that he is learning.

Liuzzi may be learning too. But, if he is, he isn’t doing it as fast as Scott. And my conclusion has to be that, of the two, Scott Speed has the greater potential. It is no wonder that Toro Rosso laughed at the idea that they would drop him.

Next year Toro Rosso will have Ferrari V8 engines and will no longer suffer from running a limited V10. Then will the true performance of the car become apparent and the abilities of the drivers be easier to assess. It is just possible that Scott will surprise us all and become one of the hot properties of 2007.