John Booth has joined Toro Rosso as the team’s new director of racing. Booth founded Manor in 1990 but left their F1 team at the end of last season.
Team principal Franz Tost explained the reason for their latest hiring.
“Formula One is becoming ever more complex with recent changes on the tyre front, car set-up, radio communications and so forth,” said Tost. “Therefore, having a competitive car and talented drivers, both of which we have, on its own is not enough.”
“With his vast experience I am sure John will help the team raise its game and become a more effective force over a race weekend.”
Booth said it is “a great honour to join such a well-established and competitive team as Scuderia Toro Rosso”. “It is a team that has achieved so much in a relatively short space of time,” he added.
Toro Rosso has bases in Italy and the UK. Booth joins a growing contingent of British senior staff members including technical director James Key and team manager Graham Watson. The team currently lies sixth in the constructors’ championship with 17 points.
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Tim Edwards (@timpey)
26th April 2016, 15:54
Excellent news.
lockup (@)
26th April 2016, 17:23
Wow what a great surprise. Isn’t he 70 though? If complexity is the issue as Tost says I’d have thought a younger mind would have been more suited? Anyway good for him, and TR.
Bernie
26th April 2016, 23:13
Up yours, whippersnapper.
William Jones
27th April 2016, 7:30
It’s a myth that the mind gets less able with age. Admittedly, the capacity to learn takes a sharp nosedive in it’s early 20’s at the end of adolescence, but given the choice between a teenager and a hugely experienced 70 year old as director of racing, I would take the experience over capacity to learn any day.
lockup (@)
27th April 2016, 9:58
It’s not a myth, and nor is it a choice between a teen and a septuagenarian.
http://www.livescience.com/17780-mental-sharpness-declines-middle-age.html
I hope it goes well, it just struck me that the complexity Tost talks about means the job needs more than just experience. So it’s great news to have Booth back as I said, but a bit of a surprise.
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
28th April 2016, 8:37
I think it’s a more of an issue that Booth is a ‘proper racing man’, with more insight into right calls on tactics and such than STR have right now. That’s often an issue they manage to miss out on, and he might help them in that regard.
FLIG (@flig)
26th April 2016, 18:34
1990?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
26th April 2016, 22:27
@flig Yes, 1990.
MemorableC (@memorablec)
27th April 2016, 1:22
Yes, infact both Kimi and Lewis won the Formula Renault championship with manor in 2000 and 2003 respectively.
And a lot more success in the lower formula with drivers that never made it to F1.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manor_Motorsport
FLIG (@flig)
28th April 2016, 13:50
I see. Somehow mixed it up with entering F1 and thought it was a mistake. Cool though, I had somehow ignored their history so far, intersting stuff.
Dan
27th April 2016, 0:11
“…space of time.” That always kills me!
faulty (@faulty)
27th April 2016, 0:34
So Carlos Slim was right when he said that managers are at their peak between 70 and 75… Who woulda thunk it?
salcrich
27th April 2016, 7:54
You know the old saying “age and treachery beats youth and skill” – spoken as a just turned 70 year old!!!
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
28th April 2016, 8:21
Bloody brilliant. STR have such incredible drivers and a great little car, just their tactics and ideas are often a problem. Having a man like Booth may well make a difference.