Franz Tost: Toro Rosso must do better
On the official Toro Rosso website, Franz Tost reflected on the first part of the Toro Rosso team's season. He assessed the performances of Daniil Kvyat and Jean-Eric Vergne, expressing satisfaction though acknowledging the possibility of doing better.
On the occasion of the summer break, Franz Tost reviewed the Toro Rosso team’s performance in the first half of the season and believes that his team could have achieved better results without the reliability issues encountered with the Renault power unit in particular.
Toro Rosso is 7th in the Constructors’ Championship and has scored points in 6 of the 11 races of the season. In the 11 races, Jean Éric Vergne and Daniil Kvyat both retired nine times. Franz Tost, the boss of Red Bull’s sister team, believes that Toro Rosso’s season isn’t good enough: “We are not at the level we wanted to be in terms of reliability with eight retirements in the first 18 starts, or nine races. It’s not good enough and this is something we need to work on. Part of this lack of reliability comes from the fact that severe problems with the power unit during preseason testing meant we couldn’t cover as many kilometers in winter testing.”
« We encountered problems in the races that normally would have been resolved before. Additionally, the team hasn’t been perfect, making mistakes that led to issues such as suspension breaks. The solution is simple, we just need to be more disciplined to avoid making further mistakes in the second half of the year. We must address our reliability issues as soon as possible so that we can finish in the points in the remaining races, » adds Tost.
But not everything is bleak on the Faenza team’s side, with Tost explaining that one of the main positives this year is the recruit Daniil Kvyat – as Christian Horner recently pointed out: « He is doing a great job, considering the limited mileage he was able to do before the season started. He drives very well, showing he has natural speed. Equally important, he hasn’t had any accidents, nor has he made mistakes. He is doing a fantastic job. »
The director of the Toro Rosso team reflected on the performances of Jean-Éric Vergne: « He suffered a lot from reliability issues, but when his car worked well, he delivered good performances. Thanks to his experience, he makes an important contribution to the technical development of the car and I am convinced that there is still more to come from him. »
