Tost: "Max more mature than many other drivers"

Published on 27 July 2015 by Stefan Meens

At the midway point of the 2015 Formula 1 season, Dutch broadcaster Sport1 caught up with Max Verstappen's team boss Franz Tost. Topics discussed are the season so far, pit stops, Scuderia Toro Rosso's performance and the driver pairing of Max and Carlos.

The first question that has to be asked is how Tost rates Scuderia Toro Rosso's season thus far. “I'm happy with the chassis and the drivers. The team has done a reasonable job. However I'm not happy with the reliability. We should have seen eighteen chequered flags in the first nine races but we've only seen ten so far. That means we didn’t finish eight times and that's far too much. We have to improve our reliability and I hope we find a solution together with our partners in the second half of the season. We are in the position to score more points and I'm still convinced we can do fifth place in the constructors but we must improve.”

Tost states his team has done a reasonable job thus far, but how about the pit stops? So far they have appeared inconsistent. “I'm not happy about the pit stops. That's why we did an additional pit stop training ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix. However, it's not only the mechanics' side of the stops. We also need to change some parts on the car. For example, the brake ducts are sometimes to close to the rims and then it's difficult to remove it when everything is hot. We also want to change some things with the axle and possibly the nuts.”

The Austrian therefore thinks it is too easy to blame the mechanics for the slower pit stops. “It's the complete package in Formula 1. If you have a problem it's most of the time caused by many different things that don’t work together in the way you expect it, which they need to do in order to be successful.”

Ahead of the season, there were some doubts in the paddock about the rookie line-up fielded by Scuderia Toro Rosso for this year's campaign. Tost feels both drivers have proved the critics wrong: “Both Max and Carlos are doing great. They push each other and bring the best out of each other. They are on a similar speed level and that is good for the team and the drivers. Hopefully they are able to keep up this level for the second part of season.”

Talking about Max, Tost finds it hard to think of areas in which the youngster needs to improve. “Up until now he has done a really good job. Crashes and spins are part of the learning process. If you don’t spin, you're not on the limit. And I must say I am more than happy with his learning curve. I'm very excited about his commitment and attitude. You can see Formula 1 is passion for him; that is the basis to become successful. It means if we provide the drivers with a reliable car, we can have a successful second half of the season. But so far Max has done a really really good job.”

Max has earned a lot of praise for some of his stunning overtakes. For Tost, the overtakes are only part of the 17-year-old's strong rookie campaign. “He did some fantastic races. I remember back in Melbourne. I think that was one of his best races. We had a special strategy and he was out on the prime tyres. How he controlled the drivers on the option tyres behind him and how he saved his tyres despite all the pressure was unbelievable for me. Unfortunately he had an engine failure so he couldn’t show his full performance. I'm convinced he would've finished in sixth or seventh place.”

Tost also fondly remembers Sepang in Malaysia. “He did good there with this overtakes. But some of his qualifying sessions were also good. Max so far has shown to all the people that criticised him for being too young and mature enough that this is not the case. Max is more mature than many other drivers who are in Formula 1 for a long time. I think that all the Formula 1 fans and critics recognize this and he now has a lot of attention from the international press which is quite positive.”