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 on the Gschnitzbach. The village was mentioned for the first time in 1030, as “Trunnes”. Formerly a part of the ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

) is a former racing driver and the former team principal of the

Scuderia AlphaTauri Scuderia AlphaTauri S.p.A, or simply AlphaTauri, was an Italian Formula One racing team and constructor that competed from to . It was one of two Formula One constructors owned by Austrian conglomerate Red Bull GmbH, the other being Red Bull ...

Formula One team, a role he departed from at the end of the 2023 Formula One season.

Early life

Tost competed as a driver 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 have historically been an important step for many prospective Formula One dri ...

and

Formula Three Formula Three (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 drivers. History Formula Three (adop ...

, winning the Austrian

Championship in 1983. However, he felt that he was not skilled enough to get to the top of motorsport, so he decided to study Sport Science and Management at the

University of Innsbruck The University of Innsbruck (; ) is a public research university in Innsbruck, the capital of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol (state), Tyrol, founded on October 15, 1669. It is the largest education facility in the Austrian States of Austria, ...

and the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

. This landed him a job as team manager at the Walter Lechner Racing School. In 1993, he joined forces with

Willi Weber Wilhelm "Willi" Friedrich Weber (born March 11, 1942 in Regensburg, Germany) is a former manager of several German racing drivers, including Michael Schumacher (until 2012), Ralf Schumacher (until November 2005), Nico Hülkenberg (until 2011), ...

, which initially led him to run the WTS

team. There, he met a young

Ralf Schumacher Ralf Schumacher (born 30 June 1975) is a German former racing driver and sports broadcasting, broadcaster, who competed in Formula One from to . Schumacher won six Formula One Grands Prix across 11 seasons. Born and raised in North Rhine-Westp ...

and was asked by Willi Weber to accompany him to Japan.

Formula One career

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

Ralf Schumacher joined the Williams Formula 1 team. Tost followed him, working for Williams' engine supplier

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

as Track Operations Manager until 1 January 2006. In

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

Tost was appointed as the team principal of

Scuderia Toro Rosso Scuderia Toro Rosso SpA (; ), commonly known as Toro Rosso or by its abbreviation STR, was an Italian Formula One constructor. It was one of two Formula One constructors owned by Austrian conglomerate company Red Bull, the other being Red B ...

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 following ...

after

Red Bull Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks created and owned by the Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With a market share of 43%, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2020, and the third most valuable soft drink brand, behind Coca-Cola and ...

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

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

and

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

landing in the sixth spot in each of these seasons. He retained the role of team principal when Toro Rosso were re-christened as AlphaTauri at the beginning of the 2020 season. Tost was 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. On 26 April 2023, it was announced that Tost would be departing from his role as Team Principal at the end of the 2023 season. Tost had spent 18 years in the role.

Criticism

Following the 2007 European Grand Prix, 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 motor racing, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long configuration, built in the 1920s ...

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 racing, open-wheel, stock car racing, stock car, and rallycross racing. In , Speed became the first American ...

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 ergerhave said in the media to damage me and Tonio (Vitantonio Liuzzi)". 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 team principals Motorsport agents Austrian sports agents German Formula Three Championship drivers Austrian motorsport people Scuderia Toro Rosso Sportspeople from Tyrol (federal state) {{f1-bio-stub Walter Lechner Racing drivers