The AlphaTauri team principal made headlines after the first round 🦹of the 2023 F1 season in Bahrain, where his team did not score a𒆙 point, by exclaiming “I no trust my engineers”.

AlphaTauri improved in the second year of the half - after Daniel Ricciardo replaced Nyck de Vries, and during Liam Lawson’s impressive run - but were cost P5 in the constructors’ standings b🌜y a slow start.

Tost claims he spꦅotted problems immediately and knew it was an issue wit🦋h individuals.

“This year’s performance was by far not what we expected,” h🌼e told . 

“It stಌarted with the regu♒lation change for 2022. We were really competitive in 2020 and 2021. 

“Then there was the change and we went in🎶 th♈e wrong direction from the aero side. Completely wrong.

“I recognised this in March or April. I went to HR and I said to the HR Director we need three to five senio🎀r aerodynamic engineers. 

“He said to me ‘but the season has just started’. I said ‘forget it, the car does not work. We are so far be🐎hind’. 

“I know F1, you can’t catch up so much.

“This cꦚar was too slow, which means don’t think until July or August we will catch up. 

“You need new people. I had many talks with people in the aero department, I felt they got lost with the new regu𒅌lations.

“You have to change the people because engin꧋eers will never accept they went in 🅰the wrong direction. 

“They😼 will always have an excuse, and they’ll say the next upgrade will be better, and the update after wi𝐆ll be better. 

“Forget this nonsense, I don’t want to 𒀰hear it anymore.

“We looked for new people, fortunately we found them but in F1 tꦉhese days, they are blocked by one year gardening leave. 

“We got the first in April [t🤡h🎉is year], the second in July and the third in September. 

“For me it was important to find out whether these new aero people understand the philosophy – whether they go in the right ꦑdirection or not.

“So, I p🥃ushed for a new upgrade at evꦅery race just to find out if they do a proper job or not, otherwise next year’s car would not be competitive, which is what I wanted to prevent. 

“The last upgrades worked quite well. Apart fr🐼om Austin, but this was a tyre problem, we w🃏ere competitive.”

Tost’s AlphaTauri were forced to settle for an underwhelming P6 𒁃in the standings.

The 67 year old will leave his role, after 18 years, on January 1, 2024 when Laurent Mekies takes overꩲ.

Known for his blunt approach, Tost’s b♏rutal finalꦛ act might yet help to propel AlphaTauri forwards in 2024.

They will benefit from the experience of Ricciardo, who looked li🔥ke his old self after taking over froꦑm the underperforming De Vries midway through 2023, then recovering from his own injury absence.