Tost: I expect James Key will respect our contract

Toro Rosso F1 boss Franz Tost sees no reason why technical director James Key cannot become the next Adrian Newey, while word is that Ferrari are aggressively courting the impressive young designer.

Asked by the official F1 website if Key could be the successor of Newey as the eminent F1 designer of the new era, Tost replied, "Why not? But it will depend much on where the regulations go. As always in life it is a matter of being in the right place at the right time."

"James has developed a lot in the last few years, and he has built up an excellent team around him," Tost added. "Adrian Newey is simply much more experienced, but I am convinced that James will be one of the top technical personalities in F1 in a couple of years."

Key is now highly rated within the F1 paddock, top teams have taken notice of the Englishman's talents and amid turmoil and change at Ferrari, the Toro Rosso man has invariably been linked to the Maranello outfit.

Tost is not overly concerned and explained why, "Of course it is always a person's ambition to do as they want - but nevertheless James has a contract with Toro Rosso and I expect that he will respect this contract."

"This is the point where I have to use the confidential word! And we want to keep it [length of the contract] confidential," insisted Tost.

Key joined Jordan in 1998 spending several years as a data engineer, then became race engineer for Takuma Sato. Following a year in the Wind Tunnel he transferred to the Vehicle Dynamics department, eventually becoming the department head during the team's final few seasons as Jordan.

Shortly after the team's ownership transferred to MF1 Racing, he became Technical Director during 2005 following a brief period as Technical Co-ordinator.

At 33 he was one of the youngest Technical Directors of a Formula 1 team. Key retained his position during the team's transition through Spyker to Force India.

In April 2010 he left Force India to join the Sauber, replacing Willy Rampf as Technical Director, where he remained until departing in February 2012.

On 6 September 2012, it was announced that Key had joined Toro Rosso as Technical Director, replacing Giorgio Ascanelli.