Uncertainty has hung over Red Bull’s junior team, AlphaTauri, for the past few months. Following the death of its motorsport enthusiast CEO Dietrich Mateschitz, the parent Red Bull company has undergone major changes. Rumours have been rife that the underperforming AlphaTauri team was set for a huge upheaval.
Certainly, it appeared to be the case as “leaks to the press”; declared by team boss Franz Tost in Baku, has set in motion big changes in the little Italian team.
Pressure mounted for Tost
Red Bull’s new boss at the helm, Oliver Mintzlaff is said to be taking a hard look at F1’s spending. The German press was the source of a story last month that AlphaTauri could be up for sale as a cost-cutting measure, putting Tost under huge pressure, especially after he publicly announced that he had to check for himself with Red Bull bosses that everything was fine and that the team wasn’t for sale.
AlphaTauri boss Franz Tost has since denied rumours that his team is for sale due to poor results in 2022, but nothing was said about the bad start to 2023. Some time ago, this website reported on the matter back in March stating that if the recent proceedings are anything to gauge, Tost has been given an ultimately by Red Bull to perform or lose his team. Ultimately, the team has been lost to Tost, but not by means of being sold, but rather, by means of the veteran team boss losing his job.
Tost’s head was put on the block with the announcement last week that he would be stepping down at the end of the year, to be replaced by Mekies, a Ferrari’s senior manager.
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Ok, last one on Baku's sprint race, as it's just too good to not tweet it. Damon Hill delivering a perfect summary 😅 #F1 pic.twitter.com/GgjIaSLVaX
— Simon Dau (@there_is_no_if) April 29, 2023
Ex-FIA manager given the reins
Peter Bayer, the former executive director of F1 at the International Automobile Federation, has been appointed CEO of the AlphaTauri team in Formula 1.
In a bid to provide long-term stability and continuity, Scuderia AlphaTauri announced on the eve of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix that a new management structure will be put in place at the team.
This move doesn’t end there for the Italian team run by Red Bull.
Ferrari man replaces Tost
Frenchman Mekies returns to the Faenza-based team where he previously worked as Chief Engineer before leaving in 2014 to join the FIA. He served as Safety Director and Deputy F1 Race Director before taking on the role of Sporting Director at Ferrari in 2018, and most recently as Deputy Team Principal.
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Ferrari reacts to unscheduled press release
On Thursday in Baku, Ferrari director Fred Vasseur sent a strong message to the AlphaTauri team during the team boss presser. Vasseur found that the Red Bull junior team were too aggressive in its communication by announcing the arrival of Mekies in Faenza without having warned Ferrari, while usually, in such announcements, the official statements are coordinated between the respective parties.
But, the Ferrari team boss was mostly magnanimous about the affair saying:
“First of all, I think it’s a mega opportunity for Laurent, considering also that I have a good relationship with him,” Vasseur told media in Azerbaijan, as quoted by The Race.
“And I won’t block Laurent, for sure…
“Then I think also, if you speak about timelines, I think Toro Rosso [AlphaTauri] was probably a bit aggressive on the press release. We have a long-term contract with Laurent and we’ll have to discuss about details.”
“I’m there to protect Ferrari’s interests, and it’s Ferrari first and it will always be Ferrari first, it means that I will have to discuss about the conditions of this.”
Tost: “There were leaks to the press”
Soon to be outgoing AlphaTauri team boss Franz Tost yesterday felt the need to explain why the Italian team felt it necessary to break the news quickly before the Grand Prix in Baku.
“There were leaks to the press” says the AlphaTauri team boss when he explained why his team sent the press release announcing its future departure and the arrival of Laurent Mekies to the media without coordinating with Ferrari.
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Asked about the communication error, Franz Tost explained that the announcement was normally planned for “later in the year”, but that due to media leaks in recent weeks, the decision was taken to issue the release before the Azerbaijan Grand Prix press conference so as not to have to lie to journalists.
“The announcement, to tell you the truth, was not planned now, but it was leaked to the press,” explained Franz Tost last weekend in Baku.
“I didn’t want to come here to Baku and tell you [the media] ‘no, I don’t know, it’s nonsense’, because that’s not how I work.”
“It was planned [the announcement] for later in the year, but now it’s out, and of course I can imagine that some people are not happy with it,” Tost concluded, obviously referring to Frederic Vasseur’s comments.
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