On December 31st an era will end when Franz Tost will close the door of his office at the Scuderia AlphaTauri factory in Faenza after 18 years. Tost, 67, will officially retire from his role at AlphaTauri on January 1, 2024.
“My to-do list is very long,” Tost said.
“I haven’t been able to do anything for the last few years. I’ve been in the office, at the airport, on a plane or on the tarmac. You know it!”
“If it snows on Saturday or Sunday, I want the freedom to be able to say on Monday, ‘I’ve got powdery blue skies, so let’s go skiing today.’ In the last 20 years this has not been possible.”
But as much as Tost loves skiing – and is believed to be quite skilled, even though he has had little time to ski in recent decades – he has dedicated his life to motor racing. , there is no way a man who has trained young drivers could do that. fill his time with just this. Ultimately, he ends up working harder than ever.
“I already have other things in mind,” Tost said. “The workload will not decrease. I think it will become even bigger, given the projects I have in mind. There will be no more dull moments.”
Although he doesn’t want to go into too much detail about these plans yet, Tost said: “Slightly different, we will also go into real estate. But we also have ideas for motorsport, but not for F1. No,” he said.
Tost may not be working in F1, but he has no intention of letting go completely. “I watch F1,” Tost said.
“I will take a look at FP1, FP2, FP3, qualifying, races and all the data. I have already asked the team how I can get all the data[dati]. He will also watch MotoGP, IndyCar and other races. And”
Being in the same role for 18 years is an amazing feat. Of current F1 team directors, only Red Bull’s Christian Horner has held the role longer. Under his guidance, AlphaTauri (formerly Toro Rosso) won over 350 Grands Prix, with two victories, five podiums and over 800 points, while Tost finished fifth in the Constructors’ Championship, frustrated by failing to achieve a long-term goal caressed. (6th place was the best, achieved in 2008, 2019 and 2021).
“I don’t feel satisfied or proud. Our goal was to finish fifth in the constructors’ championship, but we didn’t succeed,” said Tost.
“So there’s no reason to be happy or proud. I’m angry that I didn’t achieve my goal. I think to myself, ‘Why didn’t I do it? I was so stupid’. That’s very fair. Or you’re capable or you’re not smart.
How difficult is it for Tost to leave the team? He had the option to stay in the consultant role to ease the transition, but such a role would have been difficult for him after 18 years of leading his small team and making all the decisions. He didn’t want to hang around as a spare part. So he chose to separate clearly.
He’s not the type to show his emotions publicly, but you can see how sad he was to leave the team on Sunday night in Abu Dhabi.
“Obviously I’m going to miss seeing everyone,” Tost said.
“Faenza has a very strong team, a passionate team. I like everyone and have worked with many of them for 18 years. I will obviously miss them.”
“I will also miss Formula 1 and the atmosphere of Formula 1. Formula 1 is a special family. Each track has its own character, so I always looked forward to the different races. These are all challenges that make life interesting. “
What made life even more interesting was Tost’s incredible ability to mentor young drivers. During his time with the team, he developed Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen, winning seven world titles between them. Tost is more animated when the topic of coaching is broached.
“I like working with young drivers,” Tost said. “It all started with my work at the Walter Lechner Racing School (as team manager), where we had some great drivers. I was able to train them and work with them over the years. It was interesting. The years at the school helped me acquire better knowledge on how to educate young drivers.”
“Naturally,[la prima stagione alla Toro Rosso]it started with[Vitantonio]Liuzzi e[Scott]Speed, then Vettel arrived in the team, then Sébastien Buemi, Jean-Eric Vergne, Daniel Ricciardo and obviously Verstappen. Carlos Sainz was a very interesting pair of drivers, competitive from the start and there were other drivers who were quite fast.
“Daniil Kvyat was also quite fast, Pierre Gasly is a very skilled driver and now we have Yuki Tsunoda, who is very strong. I liked seeing how he has grown. But things have changed.”
“There were times when we started the year with two rookies. Nowadays it is no longer possible to do that. F1 is at a high level both from a technical and driving point of view, so we finished last in the constructors’ championship There is no driver in F1 who doesn’t deserve to be in an F1 car. The standard is so high, which means we have to do a lot of private testing to educate the drivers.
“It was right that Alpine went to Oscar Piastri. He has done 4,000-5,000 km and is used to the speed and the car itself. His first race was on a track he didn’t know apart from Bahrain. “And then if there is a sprint race you only have an hour to prepare for qualifying, which is tough for young drivers.”
Vitantonio Liuzzi (left) and Scott Speed were Tost’s first drivers at Toro Rosso.
AlphaTauri staged a courageous comeback towards the end of the season, scoring points in four of the last five races, but missed out on seventh place in the constructors’ championship. From start to finish, Tost encouraged his team to keep fighting until the end. He refused to accept excuses from aerodynamics experts and rushed to recruit when he realized he had failed with new regulations due to be introduced in 2022.
“This year’s results were not what we expected,” Tost said. “It all started with the 2022 regulation change. 2020 and 2021 were really competitive. Then the regulations changed and we went in the wrong direction from an aerodynamic point of view. It was completely wrong.
“I realized this in March or April. I went to HR and told the HR director we need three or five senior aerodynamic engineers. He said, ‘We’ve just started the season.’ But I said: “Forget it, the car doesn’t work, we’re far behind”, because I know F1, we can’t catch up.”
“This car has been too slow. I mean, I can’t think of catching up until July or August. We need new people. I’ve had a lot of conversations with the aerodynamics guys, but they’re getting lost with the new regulations. I felt like I was there.
Even though Franz Tost is no longer part of the team, he is committed to making next year’s car faster.
“You have to change people because engineers never admit they’re wrong. They always make excuses and say the next update will be better, the next update will be better. They’ll tell you it’ll get better. I don’t know. I don’t want to hear this nonsense anymore. .”
“We looked for new people and luckily we found them, but these days in F1 they are stuck with a year’s holiday for gardening. This year we have the first in April, the second in July and the second in September. A third person was selected and it was important for me to find out if this new streamlined person understands the philosophy.
“So I pushed the new updates at every race to make sure they did an adequate job. Otherwise next year’s car wouldn’t have been competitive. The last update was enough. It went well, except in Austin, which was a problem of tires, but we were competitive.”
Although Tost failed to reach his goal of fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship, his way of managing the team and making great decisions to turn the situation around when he realized he had made a mistake kept the Italian team in excellent shape. form. it means you are moving in the right direction. He should be proud of it.
Category: F1 / AlphaTauri stable / Red Bull
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