Verstappen and fellow Red Bull drivers pay tribute to Tost

Drivers that have came through the Red Bull stable have paid tribute to the outgoing team boss that oversaw their development.

The 2023 season will Franz Tost's last at the helm of AlphaTauri, having been in charge at the team over the last 18 years. In that period he's been Team Principal to drivers including Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat.

Verstappen's first team principal in F1 was Tost, who he credits with helping him in the early stages of his career when he joined the grid at 19.

"I think it's good to have a person like Franz around you, he was helping me a lot in the beginning as well, giving me advice and sharing experience as well from dealing with other young drivers," said Verstappen to media, including RacingNews365.com.

"Because I think everyone when they joined, they want to achieve a lot in a very short time, but sometimes it's important to just calm everything down. Just having these chats with him I think helped a lot.

"He has seen a lot of talent progress to the main team. So it's an amazing career and, of course, it's sad to see him go but at one point, I think when you have done so many years in F1 it's time for family time."

Nyck de Vries, who now drives for AlphaTauri under Tost, said he was "grateful" for Tost and his support since joining the grid this season.

He said: "I am very grateful for Franz, and his role in giving me the opportunity here in F1. I think we have a really good relationship, we will really appreciate all the work he has done over the past 18 years when he joined in 2005. It's a long time and he really lives for the team, for his people, and for the sport. He's very passionate and we all value that very much.

Pierre Gasly worked with Tost for five years at AlphaTauri, eventually going on to take the team's first win since Sebastian Vettel in 2008: "He's very close to the drivers in general and he really tried to understand personality wise that we're all different; we all have different requirements, whether it's in the car, in the garage, the team around us, off the racetrack. He's been always very good at having a word and question and be quite objective."

Yuki Tsunoda added: "Hopefully we can end the season in a positive way for him. To do that, obviously, we need a lot of development we need to do, but we have an aggressive plan to do it and looking forward to it.

"And at the same time I feel really appreciative to him, that he trusted my speed the last three years, and he was always supportive with me. So, I’ll try to make it up for him the next races."