Franz Tost (born 20 January 1956 in

Trins Trins is a municipality in the district of Innsbruck-Land in the Austrian state of Tyrol located 20.3 km south of Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol and the fifth-largest city in Aus ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

) is an Austrian former racing driver and current team principal of the

Scuderia AlphaTauri Scuderia AlphaTauri, or simply AlphaTauri, is an Italian Formula One racing team and constructor. It is one of two Formula One constructors owned by Austrian beverage company Red Bull, the other being Red Bull Racing. The constructor was reb ...

Formula One team.

Early life

Tost competed in

Formula Ford Formula Ford, also known as F1600 and Formula F, is an entry-level class of single seater, open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held across the world form an important step for many prospective Formula One drivers. Formula For ...

and

Formula Three Formula Three, also called Formula 3, abbreviated as F3, is a third-tier class of open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held in Europe, Australia, South America and Asia form an important step for many prospective Formula One dri ...

, he won the Austrian

Championship in 1983. Franz Tost felt that he was not skilled enough to get to the top of Motorsport. He therefore decided to study Sport Science and Management at the

University of Innsbruck The University of Innsbruck (german: Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck; la, Universitas Leopoldino Franciscea) is a public research university in Innsbruck, the capital of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol, founded on October 15, 1669. ...

and the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hi ...

which led him to a job as team manager at the Walter Lechner Racing School. In 1993 he joined Willi Weber where he initially ran the WTS

team. There he met a young Ralf Schumacher and was asked by Willi Webber to accompany him to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

Formula One career

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

Ralf Schumacher joined the Williams Formula 1 team. Tost followed him, working for Williams' engine supplier BMW as Track Operations Manager until 1 January 2006. In

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; " Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discover ...

Franz Tost was appointed as the team principal of the

Scuderia Toro Rosso Scuderia Toro Rosso (; literal translation of "Red Bull Racing Team"), commonly known as Toro Rosso or by its abbreviation STR, was an Italian Formula One racing team. It was one of two Formula One teams owned by Austrian beverage company Re ...

which was the new name of former team

Minardi Minardi was an Italian automobile racing team and constructor founded in Faenza in 1979 by Giancarlo Minardi. It competed in the Formula One World Championship from 1985 until 2005 with little success, nevertheless acquiring a loyal followi ...

after

Red Bull Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks of Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With 38% market share, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2019. Since its launch in 1987, more than 100 billion cans of Red Bull have been sold worldwide, inclu ...

acquired the team. Tost stated that he would aim for 5th place in the Constructors' Championship. He achieved his best results with the team in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

and

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

landing on the 6th spot in each of these seasons. He retained the role of team principal when Toro Rosso were re-christened as

AlphaTauri AlphaTauri or ''variant'', may refer to: *Aldebaran, also known as Alpha Tauri (α Tau) *AlphaTauri (fashion brand), fashion brand * Scuderia AlphaTauri, Formula One team since 2020; formerly Scuderia Toro Rosso See also * * * * * A Tauri * ...

at the beginning of the 2020 season. Franz Tost is one of the longest serving Formula One team principals of all time. Tost is often described as hard-working and professional. He is straightforward and not shy of sharing his opinion.

Criticism

Following the

2007 European Grand Prix The 2007 European Grand Prix (formally the 2007 Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe) was a Formula One motor race held at Nürburgring, Nürburg, Germany on 22 July 2007. It was the tenth race of the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship. The 60- ...

, at the

Nürburgring The is a 150,000 person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long "North loop" track, built in the 1920s, around the village a ...

in Germany, it was alleged that Tost assaulted driver

Scott Speed Scott Andrew Speed (born January 24, 1983) is an American race car driver who has competed in numerous disciplines, including open-wheel, stock car, and rallycross racing. In , Speed became the first American driver to race in Formula One sin ...

over an incident on the track. After Tost later denied the incident, Speed went to the press describing the acrimonious situation at the team, stating that "after coming out and denying this stuff, it's just another very dishonest thing that Franz or Gerhard have said in the media to damage me and

Tonio Tonio may refer to: * ''Tonio'' (film), a 2016 Dutch film *Tonio (software), a Vocaloid vocal *Tonio Kröger, a novella by Thomas Mann * ''Tonio Kröger'' (film), a film based on the novella *Tonio (app), an audio-decoding-app * Tonio (name), per ...

". Speed also stated that he did not want to race for Tost and Berger again.

References

1956 births Living people People from Innsbruck-Land District Formula One people German Formula Three Championship drivers Austrian motorsport people Scuderia Toro Rosso Sportspeople from Tyrol (state) {{f1-bio-stub Walter Lechner Racing drivers