He was tasked by Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz with developing young talent. 18 years, five GP winners and two world champions later, the man usually first in and last out of AlphaTauri’s factory every day is stepping aside. But if there’s one thing this loyal team man doesn’t like, it’s talking about himself…
WORDS OLEG KARPOV PORTRAITS ALPHATAURI
THE LONG INTERVIEW
Along, rose-tinted farewell interview? No way, he’s not going to do it. A sentimental rewind through 18 years at the helm of Red Bull’s junior team, a key role in developing young talent into grand prix winners and world champions, memories of his own racing career… Franz Tost is not available for any of this. He still has a job to do before he clocks out and melts away from Formula 1 into a quiet retirement in the Austrian Alps. “He will refuse to talk about himself.” Fabiana Valenti, AlphaTauri’s communications director, has been with the team since its Minardi days and well knows how its boss rolls. He might make an exception for us, though, because we’re friends, she says. But only if we want to talk about the team. After all, representing it is part of his job.
So our request is amended. And it is approved. Dare we push our luck a little bit on the day? Well, it would be remiss of GP Racing to let someone who has quietly contributed so much to F1 slip away unacknowledged…
GP Racing: Franz, let’s start with a rather difficult subject. In the spring, the floods in the Emilia Romagna region affected many of your colleagues. How are they doing now?
Franz Tost: It was a big shock for the whole team. Because 23 of our employees lost almost everything. I’ve never seen so much water – some houses were flooded up to the first floor. And I think it will take at least two years for everything to be rebuilt in an acceptable way. I was talking to one of our guys last week who lost his house. And he was waiting for the building authorities to come and see if the house could be renovated or if he’d have to tear it down because there’s nothing to hold on to. It was a huge shock for all of us.
GPR: Is it under your personal control now?
FT: It’s under the control of the team. Fortunately, people worked very closely together, they helped each other. I must say that our HR department did a fantastic job. Because we immediately took care of the families, organised hotel rooms, apartments, clothes, money, all those things.
GPR: You’ve been with the team for 18 years now. You know the date by heart, 8
