Motorsport journalist and podcaster
Yuki Tsunoda said news of Franz Tost’s intention to quit his team principal role at the end of the year surprised him despite long-running rumours of impending changes at AlphaTauri.
AlphaTauri announced this week that Tost would be stepping down at the end of the season and would be replaced by current Ferrari racing and sporting director Laurent Mekies, while ex-FIA secretary general Peter Bayer would take over as team CEO.
Rumours of changes to Red Bull-backed team have been rife since the death of company founder CEO Dietrich Mateschitz late last year, with some speculating the team could be moved to the UK to cut costs or be sold completely. Instead it appears Red Bull is satisfied to have restructured the team’s management for the medium term.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc has been reassured by Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur that the team’s recovery is still on track despite racing director Laurent Mekies’s impending departure and rumours linking him to Mercedes.
AlphaTauri announced this week that Mekies would replace Franz Tost as team principal at Faenza from next season. It’s the third significant departure from the team in the last six months.
Former principal Mattia Binotto left at the end of last season and chassis head David Sanchez will defect to McLaren for 2024 after a period of leave. Several other personnel of lesser profiles have also reportedly left the team since the end of last year’s campaign.
Williams rookie Logan Sargeant thinks his recent Formula 2 experience could give him a leg up in Formula 1’s new condensed sprint format.
The F2 weekend format offers far less time for practice than F1’s usual schedule, with drivers allowed only 45 minutes of free running on Friday compared to the three hours ordinarily afforded to their premier-class counterparts across two days.
Qualifying usually follows around two hours later on the same day rather than the next afternoon, with Saturday reserved for the sprint race and Sunday comprising the longer feature race.
Continue reading on RACERFormula 1 is heading back to Baku for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and the first sprint weekend of the year — with a new rules twist.
Michael and Rob manage to fill 30 minutes of discussion without interviewing a chatbot and have not been sacked.