Nyck de Vries downplayed the comments of AlphaTauri boss Franz Tost in Saudi Arabia about not trusting his engineers anymore, insisting the vibe within the team is great.
AlphaTauri are not having a strong start to their 2023 Formula 1 season, and had to wait until the third race in Melbourne, the 2023 Australian Grand Prix, to score their first point and are currently ninth in the Constructors’ Standings only bettering Williams.
While only Yuki Tsunoda made it into Q2 in Bahrain, both he and Nyck de Vries failed to do so in Saudi Arabia. In Australia Tsunoda qualified 12th, De Vries 15th, only for the Japanese to score a point finishing tenth in the race.
Asked about his boss’ stern comments towards the team’s engineers in Jeddah, De Vries who was taken out by Williams’ Logan Sargeant after the race’s second restart in Melbourne, said: “I honestly think the vibe within the team is great.
“I felt no difference post certain comments that have been made,” he insisted. “I think things can be taken a little bit out of context and I think we were all kind of scratching our heads and we all want to be as quick as Red Bull that is currently winning and dominating.
“So we’re all trying to improve and work hard to make that progress and so are we and we are racers and we are passionate about what we do. But I felt no change within the ambience and atmosphere within the team.
“So I’m very happy where I am and I’m sure that we’re all very keen to continue to push forward,” the Dutchman concluded.
AlphaTauri tech boss speaks out
AlphaTauri Technical Director Jody Egginton was asked by Motorsport.com about the effect of Tost’s comments, as he being the top engineer in Faenza and his team of engineers are naturally the ones targeted by team bossed comments.
“Franz knows the engineering team a long time,” Egginston said. “It’s the same engineering team that gave cars in 2019, ’20 and ‘21 which scored podiums.
“Franz has made a statement, potentially it’s been taken slightly out of context and it’s not really giving the exact picture. But we work as a team, we sit down with Franz, we discuss things, and we keep going really.
“So it is how it is. Franz has given some interviews and made some suggestions, but we continue. It changes nothing, everyone’s aligned on what we’ve got to do, and we keep going,” Egginton maintained.
It doesn’t seem that state of matters within AlphaTauri is fine, as Tost’s comments might suggest the Austrian is under pressure from the management of Red Bull.
Needless to say, Red Bull consultant, Dr. Helmut Marko has revealed earlier that the top brass at the energy drinks company are not really content with the performance of AlphaTauri, both off and on track.
That comes after new Red Bull CEO Oliver Mintzlaff took over the top job following the passing of founder Dietrich Mateschitz who died over the weekend of the 2022 United States Grand Prix in Austin, the new boss apparently not as forgiving as the late Mateschitz.
Reports also emerged early in 2023 that AlphaTauri was up for sale, prompting Tost to issue a statement denying those claims.