Team boss Franz Tost says he is more than happy with Alpha Tauri's two drivers.
The Austrian suggested that both Daniil Kvyat and Pierre Gasly were given premature call-ups to the senior Red Bull team in the past years.
"We actually had no choice (about the promotions) with either of them," Tost told Formel Austria.
"In the case of Daniil, Sebastian Vettel left for Ferrari so he (Kvyat) had to make the move to Red Bull," he added.
"But he only had one season in Formula 1 behind him and he also came to the championship directly from GP3, and this is already a huge challenge."
Kvyat was ultimately demoted after a tumultuous period at the senior team, but Tost says the Russian is still "very, very fast".
"He performed well. If you look at pure, natural speed, you will see that Kvyat was often faster than Ricciardo," he said.
"He is very, very fast, just the circumstances at Red Bull Racing did not work out.
"In my opinion, the transition to Red Bull happened quite early for them," Tost continued. "It was similar for Pierre.
"The start of the season was not easy for him, he got into accidents and as a result failed to show his true speed.
"But we are very pleased with both of our drivers," he insisted.
