Tost: My ‘to-do’ list is quite long

Plus some words of the talent that passed through the "Franz Tost University for Young Wannabe F1 Drivers" where they had to prove themselves before getting the nod to join Big Brother aka Red Bull Racing.

Being involved in modern F1 on any level that entails travelling to all 22 F1 races means little time to surface for air in between GP weekends and all the travel that is involved in getting to tracks around the globe. Time is now on his side and 67-year-old Tost is relishing the prospect.

After his final race in charge, namely the 2023 F1 World Championship finale Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Tost told F1.com: “My ‘to-do’ list is quite long. In the last few years, I was not able to do anything. I was all the time either at the office, in an airport, in an aeroplane or race track. You know this!

"I’m looking forward to having the freedom if for example on Saturday or Sunday, it’s snowing, I can say OK Monday is powder snow and blue sky, I go skiing today. This was not possible for the last 20 years.”

But Tost won't be standing still for far too long, he revealed: “I have already other things in mind. The workload will not go down. With projects I have in mind, I think it will become even more. There’s no boring time coming up.

“I’ll be going into the area of properties, something a bit different. But I also have some ideas regarding motorsport but not F1," added Tost, before elaborating on his plans for the GP weekends: "I will watch F1. I will watch FP1, FP2, FP3, qualifying and the race with all the data. I’ve already asked the team how I can get [data]. I will watch MotoGP, Indycar, and other races as well," added the Austrian.

As Toro Rosso aka AlphaTauri F1 team boss since 2005, Tost has many friends in the paddock: “Of course, I will miss the people. We have a very strong team, a passionate team in Faenza. I like the people, I have worked together with many of them for 18 years. I will miss them of course.

“I will also miss F1, the F1 atmosphere. F1 is a special family. I was always looking forward to the different races, as every track has its own characteristics. These are all challenges that make life interesting.”

During his tenure, Tost tutored and mentored a long list of Red Bull wannabe drivers, including multiple F1 World Champions Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen during their precocious early days, long before they became the legends they are today.

Tost explained: “I like to work together with young drivers. This started with my work at Walter Lechner Racing School. There were some good drivers there. It was interesting to educate them and work with them for several years. Those years in 'school' helped me to get a better knowledge of how to educate young drivers.

“Then of course, we started with [Vitantonio] Liuzzi and [Scott] Speed and then Vettel came into the team. We had a lot of drivers who were quite fast. Sebastien Buemi, Jean-Eric Vergne, Daniel Ricciardo and of course, Verstappen and Carlos Sainz, who were a very interesting driving pair, the both of them were very competitive from the beginning.

“Daniil Kvyat was quite fast too," recalled Tost. "Pierre Gasly is a highly skilled driver and now we have Yuki Tsunoda, who is very strong, and Ricciardo has come back to us at a high level. I’ve always liked to work with them, to see how they develop. Things have changed, though.

“We sometimes started a year with two rookies. Nowadays, you can’t do it. You will be last in the F1 constructors’ championship as the level is so high in F1 from the technical side and driving side. There is no one in F1 who I would say does not deserve to drive an F1 car. The level is very high which means to educate drivers, you must do many private tests.

“What Alpine did with Oscar Piastri [poached by McLaren] was the right way. He did 4000-5000km which means he’s familiar with the speed and the car itself. The first races, he’s racing on tracks he doesn’t know apart from Bahrain. Then if there’s a Sprint race, you only have one hour to get ready for qualifying. That’s tough for a young driver," reckoned Tost.

Records show that under Tost's watch Toro Rosso competed in 268 GP weekends, after morphing from Minardi. He led the team for another four years in its guise as AlphaTauri.

With Tost out of the picture, for 2024 the Red Bull-owned team will again change its identity and will be led by former Ferrari man, Laurent Mekies with former FIA F1 executive director Peter Bayer set to become the team's CEO.