ITALY: AlphaTauri, the Italian-based Formula 1 team, announced that Franz Tost, the team principal, will retire at the end of the current season.
Tost has been with the team since its inception in 2005 and is the second-longest-serving team principal on the grid after Christian Horner of Red Bull.
Tost has been principal to some of the top names in F1, including Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.
Tost has hinted at his retirement, mentioning that he would not want to be in the paddock when he turns 70 in three years.
The team has announced that Laurent Mekies, the former Ferrari man, will replace Tost.
Mekies had a history with the team and was promoted to team engineer after Red Bull took over the Minardi F1 team.
The Frenchman left the team in 2014 to take up a role at the FIA before moving to Ferrari in 2018.
Mekies, who most recently served as deputy team principal and racing director at Ferrari, will take on his first role as team principal.
He said it is an “honour” to be joining his former outfit and expressed his gratitude to Tost for the job he has done over almost two decades in charge at Faenza.
Mekies added that he looks forward to taking on the role of team principal and returning to the team where he spent most of his early career.
Mekies believes that Scuderia AlphaTauri has all the necessary ingredients for success in the future. In tandem with Peter Bayer, who will join as CEO later this year, he is looking forward to making that happen.
According to the team, Mekies will be responsible for the team’s daily operations, including technical, manufacturing, support functions, and race team operations.
Bayer’s role, on the other hand, will be strategically focused. Tost thanked Dietrich Mateschitz, the late Red Bull co-founder, for allowing him to be the team principal of Scuderia Toro Rosso and Scuderia AlphaTauri for the past 18 years.
Tost said it was time to hand over the reins and that he was confident that Mekies and Bayer would bring the team to the next level.
The announcement has generated excitement among Formula 1 fans eager to see what changes Mekies and Bayer will bring to the team.
AlphaTauri is Red Bull’s junior team, and according to reports, Mekies will focus on developing talent from within the team rather than pursuing more experienced drivers from other teams.
The announcement comes as part of a recent wave of personnel changes in Formula 1, with Mercedes, Aston Martin, and Alpine also making significant changes to their teams.
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