Verstappen sees his old team boss leave: 'Had great career'

Franz Tost is entering his last year as AlphaTauri team boss, the Faenza-based racing stable announced on Wednesday. Laurent Mekies of Ferrari will be his successor. Max Verstappen experienced Tost at the then Toro Rosso in 2015 and the first months of 2016 and has only words of praise for his old team boss.

"Yeah, I mean of course I spent a little bit over a year with Franz and especially when you're just at the start of your career I think it's good to have a person like Franz around you," Verstappen interjected to GPblog and others in Azerbaijan. Tost made Verstappen's debut when he was 17 years and 166 days old, the youngest Formula 1 driver ever.

The 25-year-old Dutchman only keeps fond memories of his time at Toro Rosso with Tost as team boss. "I think he was helping me a lot in the beginning as well, giving me advice and sharing experience as well from dealing with other young drivers because I think everyone when they join, they want to achieve a lot in a very short time but sometimes it's important to just calm everything down and just having these chats with him I think helped a lot."

Verstappen praises Tost

Tost was appointed team boss of Toro Rosso in 2005. The Austrian has seen a lot of talents come and go. "Him running Toro Rosso and then AlphaTauri for such a long time, he has seen a lot of talent and also progressed to the main team so it's an amazing career. Of course I think most of all it's sad to see him go but at one point I think you've done so many years in F1, it's time for a bit more family time as well."