Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsToro Rosso

Australia was ‘very disappointing’ - Tost

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Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost says the Australian Grand Prix was “very disappointing” for the team despite both cars finishing in the points.

Max Verstappen was running in fourth place during the first stint and able to hold of Lewis Hamilton after the pole sitter had dropped back at the start of the the race. However, the stoppage caused by Fernando Alonso’s massive crash saw the team struggled after the restart and Verstappen was left annoyed when team-mate Carlos Sainz - running second on the road - pitted first.

Verstappen then came into the pits himself when Toro Rosso wasn’t ready, and Tost says he was left disappointed by the return of just three points in total having been running so competitively.

“Both drivers did a good start,” Tost said. “Max came back from the first lap in 4^th position, Carlos was 7^th. We kept a fast pace in this first stint. Carlos’ pit-stop went well, by undercutting [Felipe] Massa. After the red flag, when the race was restarted, Max was 5^th and Carlos 6^th. But in the following laps we lost the pace.

“Carlos had a lot of front locking. Therefore we called him for an early pit stop. We changed our strategy and sent him out on medium tires. Within the next three laps also Max came into the pits, but the team was not prepared for this stop, as we did not call him. Therefore he lost 7 seconds, which put him in 12^th position.

“This result is very disappointing for us, as we had the speed to finish in a much better position. The only positive aspect is the knowledge that the STR11 is very competitive.”

Scene at the Australian Grand Prix

Australian Grand Prix - Quotes of the weekend

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.