Ex-team boss aims extraordinary criticism at 'lazy' F1 staff

Former F1 team principal Franz Tost has hit out at staff who complain about the workload involved in navigating a season.

Last year, F1 travelled to 24 venues for the first time with the record-breaking tally set to be repeated for the upcoming campaign.

The number of races on the schedule has steadily increased across the last handful of years, leading to concerns over the strains placed on those travelling to every event.

But Tost, who ran the Toro Rosso/AlphaTauri team for 18 years, labelled the complaints as “a joke”.

“I think 24 races are totally fine,” says Tost, as quoted by motorsport-total.com. 

“People always say that the mechanics are overworked. That's a total joke. They are not overworked at all.”

Four-time champion Max Verstappen voiced his annoyance at the expanded F1 calendar last year, stating 24 races is beyond the limit.

Tost reflected on his early years involved in F1, highlighting the schedule for staff was more hectic back then.

“We had the race on the weekend, and on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we tested,” he said. 

“At the beginning we even had two cars. And it was always the same technicians and engineers. I never heard a complaint from them back then.

“Now there is a curfew in Formula 1, which means that everything ends at 9 PM. in the evening until 8 AM the next morning. 

“Jesus, what more do they want? They get to work in Formula 1, that's a privilege. 

“This whole work-life balance, all this crap, it's totally pointless. You don't need anything like that. It's something for people who are too lazy to work.”