AlphaTauri team boss Franz Tost has nurtured a vast collection of young talent during his tenure in Formula 1, but ahead of his retirement at the end of the year the Austrian has singled out the fastest drivers he has worked with over the years.
Tost was entrusted with running the Faenza-based outfit – then named Toro Rosso – when it was acquired by Red Bull from Minardi at the end of 2004.
Since, the 67-year-old has overseen the formative years in F1 of a generation of Grand Prix winners, including four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, two-time world champion Max Verstappen and race winners Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz.
Also on the grid, Alex Albon and Yuki Tsunoda have likewise benefitted from Tost's guidance and deep understanding of the sport.
©AlphaTauri
Ahead of the Miami Grand Prix – his 334th race at the helm of AlphaTauri – Tost was asked which one of his talented former hopefuls was the fastest.
Unsurprisingly, the Austrian singled the two most successful drivers of the group he helped develop.
"Of course it’s easy to say. I could say now Max Verstappen, I could say Sebastian Vettel," Tost quipped.
"They were the fastest because otherwise they wouldn’t have won so many races and championships, but there were also other drivers.
"They were not much slower, but maybe they were at the wrong time in the wrong team or whatever, but these two are the best, of course."
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Reflecting on his 18 years in Formula 1, Tost reckoned that he had fulfilled the mandate handed to him at the outset by Red Bull.
"I think, when Dietrich Mateschitz decided to buy the Minardi team, he said one of the main pillars is to educate the young Red Bull drivers, and this is what the team did," he added.
"Looking back, there were some very high-skilled drivers like Sebastian Vettel, then, of course, Verstappen.
"I know they won many races, championships and so on, but there are also some other drivers, they were really fast, like Carlos Sainz, like Pierre Gasly, Ricciardo and now Yuki Tsunoda.
"And there are a couple of drivers, they really improved a lot in the time, and they were in our team and they did a very professional job, they developed themselves and that’s good to see."
Under Tost's management, Toro Rosso/AlphaTauri won two races, both of which were memorable and took place at Italy's Temple of Speed in Monza.
Vettel defied all odds at the Italian Grand Prix in 2008 by snatching pole and enjoying a lights to flag maiden win in F1, while Gasly emerged the worthy victor from an action-packed race at Monza in 2020.
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