AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost made the extraordinary admission that he had lost confidence in the squad's engineers after seeing the disappointing performance of the AT04 in the season opener in Bahrain.
Neither car finished in the top ten meaning that AlphaTauri is one of three teams yet to score any points in 2023, along with Haas and McLaren.
Yuki Tsunoda came closest and finished in P11, while new rookie signing Nyck de Vries crossed the line in 14th place. But Tost didn't blame either driver for missing out - and set the blame squarely on the technical staff.
"Yuki made a big step forward [over the winter]. Not only from the driving side. Also from the technical side. His technical feedback is really good, and I must say, also, his race was competitive. I think he got the most out of the car.
"Unfortunately, I think it's currently the performance level of the car [that is the problem], because we expected a much better car," he said at the official FIA Friday press conference in Jeddah.
"We struggled in Bahrain," he acknowledged. "We have to do a lot of things to make the car faster, and especially on the aerodynamic side.
"There are different programmes going on, but the engineers tell me that we make some good progress. But I don't trust them anymore.
"During the winter months they told me the car is fantastic, we’re making big progress. And then we come to Bahrain, and we are nowhere. What should I say?
"Too little downforce, not enough downforce, therefore the car is unstable under braking, overheating the rear tyres, washing-out at the apex, bad traction," he explained when pressed for more details.
"Everything what you need to do a good lap time," he sighed. "I just want to see the lap time, because this is the only thing which counts."
Things were looking slightly better for the team this weekend, with Tsunoda P10 and de Vries P12 in first practice for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, although both lost ground in the subsequent night time session.
"[It] looks a little bit different here. I hope that at least we are with one car in Q3," he commented. "Here in Jeddah the characteristic of the racetrack is completely different.
"Both drivers were, yeah, not satisfied with the car but said the car feels better than in Bahrain. We have still some understeering problems which we have to get rid of, and the rest, and we will see.
"What we have to provide the drivers is a fast car, and then they are there. Both of them are high-skilled drivers; both of them showed in the past that they can win races, that they can win championships.
"Nyck is still learning," he added. "If he has a good car, then he will be there. You know, if you are a young driver, a newcomer in F1 then it's even more difficult if the car causes troubles.
"It’s easier with a competitive car to show good performance," he added. "So it’s up to the team to provide them with a competitive car.
"I want to see now with the next steps that we go in the right direction, that we can improve the performance of the car, that we are able to do this.
"The budget cap does not prevent us for development work, you know. This is included in our business plan. And the question is now: do we go in the right direction?
"We are coming up with updates to the next races. We bring something to Melbourne and afterwards also to Baku. It's within our programme that we bring to nearly every race a small upgrade.
"With all the knowledge we have after Bahrain test and after the Bahrain race, the engineers should be in a position to sort it out and to come up with new parts which improve the performance of the car."
Asked if the public criticism of his engineers was a tactic of 'tough love', Tost replied: "I don't care about that! I just want to see a fast car. Whether tough or not, I simply don't care."
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