'Untrusted' engineer has left AlphaTauri

12/05/2023
NEWS STORY

Franz Tost has revealed that the engineer in which he no longer had any trust has left the Faenza outfit.

Speaking in Jeddah, when asked about his team's performance in the season opener, which followed an equally unimpressive performance in pre-season testing, Tost admitted that he no longer trusted his engineers.

"We expected a much better car," he admitted. "We struggled in Bahrain, it looks a little bit different here. I hope that at least we are with one car in Q3, but we have to do a lot of things to make the car faster, especially on the aerodynamic side.

"There are different programmes going on," he added, "and the engineers tell me that we make some good progress, but I don't trust them anymore. I just want to see the lap time because this is the only thing which counts.

"During the winter months, they told me the car is fantastic, we're making big progress," he continued, "then we come to Bahrain, and we are nowhere. What should I say?"

Speaking in Miami, Tost who will leave the team at the end of the season to be replaced by Laurent Mekies, was asked whether he still felt unable to trust his engineers.

"The person I didn't trust anymore is out, as you can imagine," he replied, "the others I trust. Totally easy, and they do a good job."

While he refused to name any particular individuals, head of aerodynamics Dickon Balmforth left the team shortly after the start of the season.

Article from Pitpass (http://www.pitpass.com):

Published: 12/05/2023
Copyright © Pitpass 2002 - 2024. All rights reserved.