AlphaTauri have never been a strong running midfield team, yet their performances in 2020/21 where they finished P7 and P6 in the constructors’ championship appeared to show they were on an upward path.

Yet now ex-team boss reveals his team completely missed the boat when it came to the big regulation changes for 2022. The result they propped up the table with Williams after a miserable season.

 

 

 

AlphaTauri in transition

The team moved on long time Red Bull driver Pierre Gasly replacing him with Nyck de Vries which proved unsuccessful as the Formula E champion failed to impress and was ditched after just ten races.

In came Daniel Ricciardo and immediately impressed given his lack of on track action for the best part of eight months. Yet the Aussie in his third outing in Zandvoort broke his hand in a practice shunt with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.

Up stepped Liam Lawson who impressed, scoring valuable points win his five Grand Prix outings before Ricciardo returned to complete the season. Over the final five events Tsunoda and Ricciardo scored in four of the Grand Prix lifting AlphaTauri to what was a respectable P8 and just three points behind Williams who had their best season for a number of years.

Yet the team hit the headlines after round one of the 2023 season as Franz Tost remarkably announced, “I no longer trust my engineers.”

Ecclestone: Schumacher was in the “wrong hands”

 

 

 

Tost slates his engineers

The retiring boss now reveals he like Toto Wolff at Mercedes realised the team was on the wrong trajectory and needed and urgent change of direction.

Todt understood the problem was with certain individuals in the engineering department and decided fresh blood was required pronto.

“It started with the regulation change for 2022. We were really competitive in 2020 and 2021. 

“Then there was the change [to ground effect cars] and we went in the wrong direction from the aero side. Completely wrong.”

Massa huge boost in overturning 2008 Hamilton title

 

 

 

Fresh blood required

Despite this being his final year with the team, Franz was happy to cause carnage at AlphTauri in the hope the team would turn around its fortunes later in the season. Marching into the HR office Tost demanded between three and five new engineers as soon as possible but met resistance from the HR director who apparently said:

“‘But the season has just started’. I said ‘forget it, the car does not work. We are so far behind’. I know F1, you can’t catch up so much [if you wait for planned upgrades].

“This car was too slow, which means don’t think until July or August we will catch up,” revealed Tost to f1.com

Tost’s subsequent revelations over having no faith in his engineers would surely have caused carnage within the team at the time.

Schumacher: “no longer nay hope” says former manager

 

 

 

AT engineers got “lost” in new regs

As had happened with Mercedes under technical director Mike Elliot, Franz believed the team had got lost its ways in the new regulations and a fresh input of ideas was the only way to turn things around.

“You need new people. I had many talks with people in the aero department, I felt they got lost with the new regulations.

“You have to change the people because engineers will never accept they went in the wrong direction. 

“They will always have an excuse, and they’ll say the next upgrade will be better, and the update after will be better. 

“Forget this nonsense, I don’t want to hear it anymore,” revealed the  experienced Austrian boss.

Horner reveals biggest reason for RB19 dominance

 

 

 

New recruits results visible for 2024

By way of contrast Mercedes solution was to ‘remove’ Elliot and bring back James Allison who had been working on other projects and had no experience of the new ground effect F1 cars. 2024 will prove whether this was the right result and Allison recently admitted he has not looked for new people rather “got the departments talking more.”

“We looked for new people, fortunately we found them,” Tost continued

“We got the first in April [this year], the second in July and the third in September. 

“For me it was important to find out whether these new aero people understand the philosophy – whether they go in the right direction or not.

FIA reacts to ex-presidents criticism

 

 

 

Tost legacy a more competitive team

“So, I pushed for a new upgrade at every race just to find out if they do a proper job or not, otherwise next year’s car would not be competitive, which is what I wanted to prevent.”

This was a remarkable strategy form the AT team boss given the world champions and uber dominant F1 team operated in exactly the opposite manner. McLaren too decided to not ‘fiddle’ with minor upgrades but concentrate on one big effort which came after eight races and saw them the second best team for the remainder of the season.

Tost reflects, “the last upgrades worked quite well. Apart from Austin, but this was a tyre problem, we were competitive.”

Clearly Franz Tost actions dragged AlphaTauri from the bottom of the pile to finish in P8 this year. The legacy of the 67 year old as he leaves the Red Bull junior team will surely mean they have a better start to 2024 when ex-Ferrari Laurent Mekies takes over the reigns.

READ MORE: Mercedes F1 hit a problem for 2024 car

 

Michael Schumacher “no longer any hope” says his former manager

As the mists of time swirl around the finer details of Michael Schumacher’s racing career, he remains the man who conquered Formula One with a record seven world titles many believed would never e beaten. Yet as the 10 year anniversary of his tragic ski accident approaches, Michael is still being cared for in his Swiss home by full time medical staff.

In the world of motorsport where climbing the ladder requires huge sums of money, Schumacher’s family and their social circles never had the resources for Michael to even progress to Germany’s F3 division… READ MORE..