Horner on Tost's departure: 'Had a huge contribution'

Franz Tost has been team boss at Red Bull Racing's sister team since 2005, but at the end of this year, the Austrian will step down. Christian Horner understands Tost's choice, stating that he has made a huge contribution to both teams.

Just before the weekend in Azerbaijan, it was announced that Tost was leaving as team boss at AlphaTauri. The Austrian is now running his eighteenth season as team boss at Red Bull's sister team, but will be replaced next year by Laurent Mekkies, who currently works at Ferrari.

The strategy Red Bull has with its sister team is that Red Bull can stable its young, talented drivers there, who can develop further at AlphaTauri (previously Toro Rosso). As team boss, Tost has always had an important contribution to the development of talents, Horner stated.

"It's [his contribution] been huge. I mean, as you know, Franz has worked and groomed a lot of young drivers for us and any driver that could survive a ‘Tosting’ was only ever going to survive at Red Bull Racing. So he did a wonderful job with the young drivers and it's only understandable that he's time to perhaps back off a little bit," said the Red Bull team boss at the press conference in Miami.