Franz Tost: I expect a lot from Nick de Vries

The 2022 season did not go well for AphaTauri and the team finished penultimate in the Constructors’ Championship, only ahead of Williams. Team boss Franz Tost commented on the results in an interview with Speedweek and spoke of his hopes for the next championship.

Franz Tost: “Our car was not efficient enough. We had problems developing it further, also because of the limited budget, because until we got clarification from the FIA, we thought we had spent too much. But the pace of modernization has already slowed down, so the results remained at a lower level than we expected.

Yuki Tsunoda showed good progress and was ahead of Pierre Gasly in the qualifications at the end of the season. Whether he can add more now depends only on himself. But I expect him to be in shape in 2023.

At the beginning of September it became clear that Gasly would go to Alpine. He is a very experienced professional, but his future team-mate, Esteban Ocon, is a fast driver who knows this team and this car very well. Let’s see how quickly Pierre will feel comfortable in a new place.

Nick de Vries is coming to AlphaTauri, and if our car does well, I expect a lot from him. In the tests in Abu Dhabi he performed very well and gave the team quality feedback. We will prepare Nick well for the coming season: before the start of the official tests he will do two tire tests, in addition we will organize private tests for him. This means that at the beginning of the season he will have time to drive from 3000 to 4000 km. This should allow him to prepare well.

Drivers from Red Bull’s youth program performed well in Formula 2, but still lack experience. I expect Ayumu Iwasa (5th in 2022) to perform as well as F3’s Isaac Hajjar next season – curious to see what he does in F2.

Liam Lawson (3rd at the end of the season) will now drive in Japanese Super Formula, which is of course also interesting, but all these drivers need another year or two to reach the level required for Formula 1.

Overall, I expect the battle for the F1 title to become fiercer in 2023, because such a clear superiority, which Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing achieved last season, is quite rare. I expect Max, Charles Leclerc and George Russell, who is already stronger than Lewis Hamilton, to lead the battle for the title.

No doubt the fines imposed by the FIA ​​on the Red Bull Racing team (for breaching the financial regulations) will affect their work, but I believe it will be able to fight again for victory in the championship. That said, I don’t expect any of the teams to have similar problems this year: I don’t think anyone will overspend.”

Tost also said a few words to Sebastian Vettel, who ended his career in Formula 1: “I can well imagine that he will return in some capacity, as he has been associated with this championship for so long. Maybe sooner or later he will get bored with his private life.”