AlphaTauri boss Franz Tost at F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix: “I don’t trust my engineers anymore”
AlphaTauri were perhaps the biggest strugglers with F1’s new aerodynamic rules la꧋st season, finishing ninth in the constructors’ championship after managing sixth the year before.
Red Bull have been forced to deny reports that th💫ey were looking to sell their si🐈ster team, after an underwhelming year.
“The engineers tell me we made some good progress but I don’t trust them anymore,” Tost said at the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
“I just want to see the lap 𝓡time because this is the only thing that counts♔.
“During ꧅the winter months they told me: ‘The car is fantastic, we made big progress!’
“Then we came to Bahrain and we are no🃏where. What should I say?”
Alp🌜haTauri were ninth-fastest in qualifying in Bahrain but would have been slowest had McLaren’s Lando Norris not suffered problems.
Tost was grilled about his comments about his own engineers but bit back: “I don’t care about that, I j🧔ust want to see a fast car whether tough or not. I simply don’t care.”
Tost explained the problems with the AT04: “There’s not enough downforce. Therefore the car is unstable under braking and overheats the rear ty🦂res.
“Washing out at the apex, then traction. Everything that you🌜 need to do a good lap time.
“Here in Jeddah the characteristic of the race track is completely different and both drivers are not satisfied with the car but🍸 satisfied that the car feels better than in Bahrain.
“Still have some understeer problems that we have to get rid of and ꦓthe rest we will see.”
Tost promi🌼sed minor upgradไes at each of the next few races but warned: “The question is now, do we go in the right direction?
“As I mentio♏ned before, during the winter months we saw that, at least on the paper and on the computer, we made big progress in comparison to last year’s car.
“But all these figures nowadays, as I mentiꦏoned before, I don’t trust them now.
“I want to see now with the next steps that we go in the right direction, that we𒐪 can improve the performance of the c🃏ar, that we are able to do this and this is a specialism work on the floor, brake ducts, and all the other aerodynamic parts.
“I think now with all the knowledge we have after Bahrain test and after the Bahrain race, the engineers should be in a🍎 position to sort it out and come up with new parts which improve the performance of the car.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade coveri🉐ng everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
