Team boss Franz Tost of AlphaTauri is not pleased with the car his technical team has built for this season. According to the Austrian, he was promised a fast AlphaTauri, but that is disappointing in practice.
“My engineers say improvements are coming, but I no longer trust them,” Nyck de Vries’ team boss said fiercely in Jeddah on Friday. “I want to see lap times first. They also said in the winter that we would have a good car, but in Bahrain we were nowhere. He was only fast on paper.”
Tost summed up what’s wrong with the AlphaTauri AT04: “There’s not enough downforce, it’s unstable under braking and the car fans out in the corners.”
He is not afraid of a depressed atmosphere at the Italian team. “I don’t care if the atmosphere is bad. I just want a fast car,” said the veteran team boss. “So we have to look for improvements quickly. In fact, we want to come up with updates almost every race.”
Bad car tricky for a newcomer
According to Tost, the poor performance of the AlphaTauri also has an impact on De Vries. He drove the slowest time in qualifying in Bahrain.
“As a newcomer it is difficult if you have a bad car. With a good car you can achieve performance much more easily. Nyck also has a lot to learn. Yuki (Tsunoda, ed.) managed to get the most out of the car.”
Tost has no complaints about De Vries himself. The Frisian driver has found his niche within the team. “He already knows everyone well. Now it’s up to us to give him a good car. Then I’m sure he will perform well. He can win races. He has already shown that in the past.”
Tijdenschema GP Saoedi-Arabië
- Tweede vrije training: vrijdag 18.00 uur
- Derde vrije training: zaterdag 14.30 uur
- Kwalificatie: zaterdag 18.00 uur
- Race: zondag 18.00 uur
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