Tost says AlphaTauri must cut out mistakes in 2021

AlphaTauri team boss Franz Tost says that the team must avoid making any mistakes if it's to meet its objectives in 2021.

The team - formerly Toro Rosso - secured victory in last year's Italian Grand Prix at Monza, but problems and errors at other races left it in a disappointing seventh place in the final constructors championship standings.

Tost believes that they deserved better, and is determined that the squad should achieve its full potential this year with its new AT02 car in the hands of Pierre Gasly and rookie driver Yuki Tsunoda.

• Read also: Tsunoda looking to learn from Gasly in rookie season

"In 2020 Scuderia AlphaTauri was a midfield team," he admitted. "We were fighting successfully against the other teams like McLaren, Renault and Racing Point

"But our target for this year is to consistently be at the top of this midfield pack and to improve further.

"To achieve this, we have to avoid reliability issues and finish all races in the points. This can only happen if we do not make any mistakes.

"We have to be 100 per cent concentrated on our job, race after race, on and off the track, because our competitors are hard to fight."

AlphaTauri failed to score points in two of last year's races, including a gearbox issue for Gasly in Hungary.

The French driver also suffered a radiator leak at Imola and was involved in a first corner accident in Tuscany, while his team mate last year Daniil Kvyat sustained a race-ending tyre failure during the British Grand Prix.

"I can't forget that we retired four times, three of them due to reliability issues and once because of an accident Pierre was involved in, which means we missed four opportunities to score points," said Tost on Friday.

"We definitely have to avoid finding ourselves in certain situations, so there is still some work to do ahead of us.

"The team is focusing on this to prepare in the best possible way for the new season.

"I hope that the new car will be as good as we expect it to be, because if our drivers get a competitive car I think we can have an even better season this year."

Gasly himself said he was "really satisfied" with his performance last season including his maiden F1 victory, but agreed that he needed to build on that progress in 2021.

"There is still room for improvement, room for fine tuning," he insisted. "What you need over the whole year is to be consistent and to score at every opportunity.

"The key will be consistency and not to make any mistakes," he added, echoing the thoughts of his team principal.

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