Franz Tost has been the director of AlphaTauri since the start of Red Bull’s second team F1 adventure. Back then it was called Toro Rosso and in its second year it welcomed a young driver by the name of Sebastian Vettel.
The German won his first victory in F1 the following year, in the colors of the Italian bull, and his former manager remembers a very involved pilot, while the quadruple world champion will retire at the end of the year.
« I was already watching him in Formula BMW, and he won a lot of races » Tost said. « Then we met a few times and he was very focused. The questions he was asking were really good for a young driver and he was 100 per cent committed to Formula 1, or motorsport in general at this point. era. »
« Because it wasn’t just in BMW, it was also in Formula 3, and in other categories. And in Formula 1, when he came to us, he brought new blood, new ideas, he was very demanding and asked a lot of questions. »
« He went into detail, which is very important, and he was always in a good mood, although we had some problems with the car at the beginning, but he took the team forward, and as a result, he won. , with Scuderia Toro Rosso at the time, the race at Monza. It was his first race, it was the first victory for Scuderia Toro Rosso. »
The Austrian salutes « a fantastic character »
Tost has always seen Vettel as a world champion: « With his way of working, it was clear to me that he was going to become a real great driver. He went on to win four world championships. I was convinced that he could become a Formula 1 world champion, if he was at the right time, with the right team. And that was the case with Red Bull Racing. »
« And later with Ferrari he was very successful, he won many races for Scuderia Ferrari. And now he has decided to quit Formula 1. We will miss him. Personally, of course, because that we’ve met a few times and he’s a fantastic character, always open. »
Tost recalls that Vettel is in the top 5 in F1 history, behind Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and Juan Manuel Fangio, tied with Alain Prost: « And we will always keep that in mind because with four world championship titles he is among the best, behind Michael and Hamilton. »
« Fangio has five, then it’s him and Prost, and so he has a place in history. And within Scuderia AlphaTauri there is a staircase named after him. He will always be remembered with fantastic photos. And I wish him and his family all the best for the future. »
