AlphaTauri boss angry with Marko: 'I don't understand any of it'

Red Bull Racing have openly criticised Yuki Tsunoda after the qualifying session in Mexico, after the Japanese driver ran wide causing both Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen's laps to be compromised. Helmut Marko wanted to have a sterm word with the young AlphaTauri driver after the session, but his team principal, Franz Tost, was having none of it.

Ted Kravitz reported this during the Formula 1 broadcast on Sky Sports. Marko is said to have been on his way to AlphaTauri, where he wanted to talk to Tsunoda and his team boss Franz Tost.

Tost stands up for Tsunoda

How that conversation exactly went, is still unclear. However, Tost did provide a response to the incident and subsequent controversy. "He gave a tow to Pierre [Gasly, his team-mate]. It’s as easy as that. And we wanted to be in front of [Lando] Norris. So two things why he was out [on track].”

"He didn’t make a mistake, he did it deliberately,” said Tost. “We said to him Perez is coming and he deliberately went to the side not to disturb them or not to be in front of them," the Austrian is quoted as saying by The Race. 

"I absolutely don’t understand to be honest why Perez went also off the track there. Yuki went to the side as all the drivers do in qualifying to make place for the cars which are coming behind which are on a qualifying lap."

"He was not a qualifying lap. It’s easy as that. That’s why I don’t understand anything about this," Tost concluded.