AlphaTauri has announced that its current team principal, Franz Tost, will step down from his position at the end of the 2023 season. Tost has been in charge of the team since 2006, overseeing two victories during his tenure. However, the team’s recent downturn in performance has placed Tost under scrutiny, and his lack of trust in the AlphaTauri engineers has not been well-received by the team.
Laurent Mekies, a former race engineer and head of vehicle performance at Toro Rosso, will take over as team principal. Mekies had been with the team during its Minardi days before departing for the FIA, where he worked as safety director and deputy race director. He then moved to Ferrari as sporting director in 2018. Mekies is honoured to take on the role of team principal and to return to the team where he spent a large portion of his early career. He believes that AlphaTauri has all of the ingredients necessary for greater success in the future.
In addition, former FIA executive director Peter Bayer will join AlphaTauri later this season as its CEO. Bayer’s remit will be to oversee the strategic direction of the team across both its facilities in Italy and the UK. Bayer departed the FIA midway through 2022, having served as the secretary general for sport at the governing body before adding his F1 executive director role to the mix in 2021. He is looking forward to building on the team’s key elements to increase performance, on and off the track, and to bring the team even more success in the coming years.
Tost will retain links with the team on a consultancy basis after stepping down as team principal. He thanked Dietrich Mateschitz for giving him the “incredible opportunity” to be team principal of Scuderia Toro Rosso and Scuderia AlphaTauri for the past 18 years. Tost believes that with Peter as new CEO and Laurent as team principal, the team has found two very professional people who will bring the team to the next level.
Overall, AlphaTauri is making leadership changes to improve the team’s performance and strategic direction. With Mekies as team principal and Bayer as CEO, the team is poised for greater success in the future.
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