Retiring F1 Principal Pis**d Over Yuki Tsunoda's Strategy In Last Race Of Season

Tuesday, 28 November 2023 at 18:00

Retiring AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost commented on his last-ever race in the position - the 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Franz Tost has been one of the longest-serving team principals in Formula One. He has been appointed as a team principal to Toro Rosso (currently known as AlphaTauri) ever since the team was bought and rebranded by Red Bull.

The team principal left a huge legacy in F1 as he was the one who brought up and worked with drivers like Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz Jr., Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon and now Yuki Tsunoda.

Commenting on his last race, the former team principal principal could not help but criticize his team's strategy. Tost told Sky Deutschland:

"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."

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Tsunoda needed to finish at least sixth to snatch the seventh place in the Constructors' Championship for his team, but the one-stop strategy did not work out how Tost would have wanted.

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

Tsunoda ended up crossing the finish line in eighth place which is a great result for his team, but the team principal was not satisfied with the strategy as he was sure the Japanese driver could have finished higher.

"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 [during the race]."

Nevertheless, Tsunoda gave it all as he said after the race, and at least showed his performance as an appreciation for the departing team principal.

Starting from the 2024 season, the AlphaTauri team will have a new team principal and will undergo a rebrand. Potential future name and logo have recently been leaked on social media.