AlphaTauri F1 team boss Franz Tost looks back on a difficult 2022 season, how he assesses the driver’s performance and what to expect from Nick de Vries in 2023. He said if
In the 2022 F1 World Championship, Scuderia AlphaTauri experienced a difficult and perhaps disappointing season, well below its expectations of finishing ninth in the Constructors’ Championship.
Team principal Franz Tost expects a big improvement for the 202.
“We didn’t have enough cars,” Tost told SPEEDWEEK of the reason for the lack of performance in 2022.
“We also had problems with development. We also had to deal with the cost cap, which we thought was over before the FIA decided it was OK. But development was already slow. We were down and our performance remained below expectations”.
Franz Tost said of his rider for 2022: “Yuki Tsunoda has developed quite well and has been able to improve, and he was faster than Pierre Gasly in the last qualifying. It depends on him how much he can improve. I already expect that have a strong 2023.”
“At the beginning of September it became clear that Gasly would be moving to Alpine. He has a lot of experience now, but Alpine have a strong partner in Esteban Ocon who knows the team and the car well. Let’s see how quickly he integrates there.” .
Franz Tost was impressed and has high hopes for Nick de Vries, who will replace Pierre Gasly in 2023.
“As long as our car works, we expect a lot from Nick de Vries. He had a great test in Abu Dhabi and his feedback was very good,” said Franz Tost.
“We will prepare him well. There are still two tire tests and one private test before the start of the official F11 tests, which means he will have 3,000 to 4,000 kilometers before the start of the season. “He has to be well prepared for the season .”
At the moment Franz Tost has not seen a direct candidate in F1 for Red Bull Junior.
“Red Bull Jr. did well in F2, but they are still too inexperienced. I can’t wait to see Ayumu Iwasa (5th overall) and Isaac Hajar, who will arrive from Formula 3 next season. Liam Lawson is good enough to Super Formula in Japan will certainly be interesting, but it will take another year or two before they reach the level of F1.”
Franz Tost expects the F1 2023 title fight to be close.
“The kind of dominance that Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing have shown this year is quite rare. Expect a three-way battle between Max, Charles Leclerc and George Russell, who is already stronger than Lewis Hamilton.” says Franz Tost.
“The FIA penalty will certainly hurt Red Bull Racing, even with some of the team’s best engineers. But I think Red Bull Racing can still fight for the world title.”
Franz Tost believes the 2022 budget cap is out of the question and “I don’t expect any team to exceed it,” he said.
Also, regarding his former student Sebastian Vettel, who retired from F1 at the end of the 2022 season, “I can imagine him returning to F1 in some capacity. He’s been involved in F1 for a long time. Sooner or later, he has a life private. I could get tired of it,” she said.
And finally, Franz Tost said about the future without Dietrich Mateschitz:
“We will see how we and Red Bull Racing continue in F1. Nothing will change in 2023. What happens after that is still to be determined,” said Franz Tost, who said he has a great personal relationship with Dietrich Mattischitz.
“It helped us a lot and I’m sure we will never see another person like that again. We will never see another person like this again with this commitment and drive to support Formula 1 and our team. For me, the death of Dietrich is a great loss.”
Category: F1 / Alpha Taurus / Nick deVries
