Tost bows out of F1 with “too stupid” dig at the AlphaTauri strategists

Tsunoda put together a stellar weekend at the Yas Marina Circuit as AlphaTauri looked to topple Williams in the constructors’ championship.

The Japanese driver qualified sixth and took the race lead at one point as AlphaTauri gambled on a one-stop strategy.

It didn’t ultimately work out as he lost to Fernando Alonso late on, before coming under threat from Lewis Hamilton on the final lap.

Tsunoda needed sixth for AlphaTauri to overtake Williams - and Tost - who bows out of the team at the end of the year as team principal - wasn’t impressed with the strategy deployed.

“I’m pissed because we were too stupid to choose a correct strategy and because I had a lot of discussions on the pit wall because I said, bring Yuki in, we’re closed slowly,” he told Sky Deutschland. 

“I was told that it would work out. It’s pure arithmetic. I actually realised straight away that it probably wouldn’t work out.

“I’ll say now: A seventh place was 100 percent realistic for Yuki. Sixth, not so much, because Perez was behind us in qualifying and was simply faster [in the race]. So you had to take that into account that he was ahead.

“We messed it up because the technicians who sit in front of the computer for hours couldn’t figure out a strategy that would ultimately work.”