F1 boss reveals extraordinary bust-up with engineers: “You need new people…”

The AlphaTauri team principal made headlines after the first round of the 2023 F1 season in Bahrain, where his team did not score a point, by exclaiming “I no trust my engineers”.

AlphaTauri improved in the second year of the half - after Daniel Ricciardo replaced Nyck de Vries, and during Liam Lawson’s impressive run - but were cost P5 in the constructors’ standings by a slow start.

Tost claims he spotted problems immediately and knew it was an issue with individuals.

“This year’s performance was by far not what we expected,” he told F1.com. 

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

“Then there was the change and we went in the wrong direction from the aero side. Completely wrong.

“I recognised this in March or April. I went to HR and I said to the HR Director we need three to five senior aerodynamic engineers. 

“He said to me ‘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.

“This car was too slow, which means don’t think until July or August we will catch up. 

“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.

“We looked for new people, fortunately we found them but in F1 these days, they are blocked by one year gardening leave. 

“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.

“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. 

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

Tost’s AlphaTauri were forced to settle for an underwhelming P6 in the standings.

The 67 year old will leave his role, after 18 years, on January 1, 2024 when Laurent Mekies takes over.

Known for his blunt approach, Tost’s brutal final act might yet help to propel AlphaTauri forwards in 2024.

They will benefit from the experience of Ricciardo, who looked like his old self after taking over from the underperforming De Vries midway through 2023, then recovering from his own injury absence.