Tost ‘would have liked Schumacher at AlphaTauri’

RaceFans Round-up

Posted on

| Written by

In the round-up: AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost says that he would have been happy to offer Mick Schumacher a race seat with the team for 2023.

In brief

Tost ‘would have liked Schumacher at AlphaTauri’

Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free

AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost says that he would have been happy to offer Mick Schumacher a race seat with the team for 2023.

Schumacher was dropped by Haas near the end of the 2022 season in favour of veteran Nico Hulkenberg. The announcement came after AlphaTauri had already confirmed Nyck de Vries for the 2023 season. Tost says he would have been happy to have Schumacher racing for his team.

“I would actually have liked to have had Mick in the car,” Tost told RTL.

Tost said he was “convinced that Mick is talented and that he also has what it takes to drive successfully in Formula 1.”

Mercedes has since signed Schumacher as the team’s reserve driver for this year. “It’s a very, very good team, one of the best in Formula 1, so of course he can learn a great deal,” said Tost.

Piquet’s final race winning Benetton for sale

A 1991 Benetton B191 driven by both Nelson Piquet and Michael Schumacher has been put up for sale with car auctioneers RM Sotheby’s. The chassis number B-191-02 was originally driven by Nelson Piquet, who used it to win the 1991 Canadian Grand Prix, his last career victory in the sport

After Schumacher’s impressive debut with Jordan, the future seven-time champion signed to drive with Benetton where he completed the rest of the season, scoring four points over the final five rounds of the championship.

Benetton would finish the 1991 season in fourth place in the constructors’ championship on 38.5 points.

Mazepin’s father sought by Italian police over missing yachts

Dmitry Mazepin, father of former Haas F1 driver Nikita Mazepin, is wanted by Italian authorities over two seized yachts that disappeared from a Sardinian port.

Mazepin owns the Ural Kali petrochemical company that was title sponsor of Haas before the team cut ties after the Russian military invasion of Ukraine in March. The Italian government froze Mazepin’s assets after the European Union placed sanctions on Russia, including two super yachts belonging to him in Sardinia.

However, the two yachts have since disappeared after Mazepin reportedly hired a foreign company to employ a Sardinian captain to transport the yachts away from port, the Guardian reports. Mazepin and the yachts are now being pursued by the Italian authorities.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Comment of the day

While new Williams team principal James Vowles may insist his move to Grove is not about him being groomed to one day succeed Toto Wolff, Boomerang can’t help but be cynical…

This smells like preparation for bigger role at Mercedes some day. ‘We like him so much and we like to see him go’ is the most ambivalent attitude I witnessed in F1 for a long time. Regardless of behind the scene development I sincerely hope James will transform Williams into something it should be.
Boomerang

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Nathan and Salut Gilles!

On this day in motorsport

Rio Haryanto, Manor, Shanghai International Circuit, 2016

Author information

Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

26 comments on “Tost ‘would have liked Schumacher at AlphaTauri’”

  1. Profile Photo

    Darryn Smith (@darryn)
    22nd January 2023, 1:50

    Talk is cheap. Schumacher sucks and Tost knew for a long time he wasn’t coming back.

    1. Profile Photo

      Armchair Expert (@armchairexpert)
      22nd January 2023, 7:03

      Toto said Mick “can be a GOOD racing driver” and now Tost says Mick “has what it takes to DRIVE SUCCESSFULLY in Formula 1”. What a ringing endorsement of Schumacher’s skills, isn’t it? Can you imagine team principals saying that about Alonso or Max, when they both already won a race in their 2nd season, while in their rookie years it was so blatantly obvious they are future world champions? “Max Verstappen can be a good racing driver, he has what it takes to drive successfully in Formula 1”, hahaha.

    2. Dex
      22nd January 2023, 13:56

      Do you judge yourself by such a high standards too? I mean, he’s far from perfect and still a bit difficult to judge (after one “real” season), but “sucks” is a bit childish and ugly.

    3. CheeseBucket
      22nd January 2023, 22:21

      You’re a child.

    4. Coventry Climax
      23rd January 2023, 11:22

      I agree with you, @darryn.
      Dex and Cheesbucket still fall for the name only, and fail to see the Mick’s mediocrity. I suggest they start compiling a list of Mick highlights, should be an easy task.
      Tost’s words sound hollow, but maybe aren’t: I’m sure he himself knows he’s lying, but maybe he wants to lull Mercedes into believing they signed the right person?
      Either way, Tost lost a bit of my respect.

  2. S
    22nd January 2023, 5:23

    “I am living in his head rent free. The guy is obsessed. Every second that I spend on talking about Horner is a waste of time in my life.”

    And yet he does it so often. I’ll bet Horner thinks the same thing about Toto.

    1. Profile Photo

      Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
      22nd January 2023, 6:56

      There’s a secret bromance behind the scenes that they’re trying hard to cover!

      1. S
        22nd January 2023, 7:43

        Yeah… It’s all testy in front of the cameras, but they’ll be out the back snogging each other afterwards ;)

        1. Profile Photo

          bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
          22nd January 2023, 8:35

          If you think of all the times they have to be in a room together. What happens if there is nobody else to talk to? It’s just the two of them. Do they sip their wine and stand there in silence? Or list all the things they don’t like about each other and start yelling?

          I hadn’t considered snogging. But i guess its an option. Often happens after a good argument.

  3. Profile Photo

    Jere (@jerejj)
    22nd January 2023, 6:26

    The Mirror post regarding Arrivabene (I still slightly miss him) surprisingly leads to Domenicali’s appointment announcement. For reference, incorrect links usually lead to the Forum page.

    I wish people didn’t start making up assumptions & conclusions that suit their liking.
    No one has thought similarly about Vasseur’s Ferrari move despite Alfa Romeo-Sauber using a Ferrari PU, so in this regard & principle, nothing different.

    I wonder if many people even remember Haryanto anymore.

  4. Profile Photo

    Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
    22nd January 2023, 9:11

    Schumacher is getting so much praise yet no one is signing him up for a drive. Talk is cheap.

    He’s getting so much publicity after being veeeery average for two years. Something doesn’t add up

    1. Profile Photo

      Shimks (@shimks)
      23rd January 2023, 9:28

      I find it strange too. I do hold out any hope that he could be good. Yes, just because he’s his father’s son, and seems like a nice lad. But I haven’t seen anything impressive from him since those lightning F2 starts he managed a couple of times.

    2. George.be
      24th January 2023, 17:52

      All seats are filled, only McLaren can, and do sign people before they can “use” them.
      At Alpine it’s the other way around, but even those seats were signed and filled before Mick got the kick.
      BTW, the mediocre years are:
      A year wasted in a 2 year old car that lacked developement, and given the progress rate in F1…
      A year where quite a few people crashed due to bouncing and bottoming out. Others got more than lucky not to crash Sainz in Monaco could’ve been as bad as Mick.
      Towards the end of the year Mick improved but often got strategically screwed.

  5. Mayrton
    22nd January 2023, 10:58

    “I am living in his head rent free. The guy is obsessed. Every second that I spend on talking about Horner is a waste of time in my life.”

    Nothing has changed with Toto I see. Feel sorry for him

    1. CheeseBucket
      22nd January 2023, 22:22

      I feel sorry for you.

    2. anon
      22nd January 2023, 22:39

      Mayrton, considering the way you routinely behave on this site, it would seem that Toto is clearly living in your head rent free and that you are utterly obsessed with him too, to the point where your sole identity now seems to consist of the all consuming hatred that you have for Toto.

      It’s got to the point where it seems everything you say has to be a negative jab at somebody, as if the only way that you seem to be able to get any sort of pleasure in life is through being abusive towards somebody else (which, no doubt, you will then prove by deciding to retaliate in an abusive or bullying manner).

      1. Profile Photo

        sethje (@seth-space)
        23rd January 2023, 20:57

        @anon, reply on the content not the person.
        Keep it clean The season is not even started and you seem in high gear already.

    3. Profile Photo

      sethje (@seth-space)
      23rd January 2023, 20:55

      i must agree with that.. Toto is the one who starts about Horner time and time again.
      Some things seems to be engraved in his head and he is unable to move on.

  6. MichaelN
    22nd January 2023, 11:39

    That list of LEGO Ferrari’s is great. I recall having the first one on the list, the F1 car from 1998. Hadn’t expected last year’s Daytona SP3 to cost a whopping $450! That’s more expensive than many premium scale models.

  7. Witan
    22nd January 2023, 11:45

    The Schumacher Family PR machine rolls on, and on, and on, and on……

  8. Profile Photo

    Adam (@rocketpanda)
    22nd January 2023, 12:33

    That little tirade by Toto Wolff really disgusts me, to be honest. F1 fandom has been pretty rough for a long time, arguably because for a while we got to see people like Wolff, like Horner, be openly disdainful, disrespectful and rude about each other. It’s normalised a behaviour that shouldn’t be. This season was relatively peaceful, especially compared to 2021 as both sides seemed to back off sharply. I had hoped we were not seeing any more of this kind of talk but here we are again. If you have nothing nice to say just don’t say anything, it’s that simple.

    1. anon
      23rd January 2023, 0:29

      @rocketpanda that said, Horner has previously stated that he has a deliberate strategy of going for highly personal and aggressive attacks on others with the intention of trying to offend them as much as possible, mainly because he considers it a legitimate way of trying to destabilise a team or make individuals to make mistakes by making them angry and upset.

      It’s also not necessarily just figures like Toto that Horner has indicated that he takes that approach towards either – Horner’s said that, as far as he’s concerned, those sort of tactics are “fair game” to be used against Liberty Media, all rival teams, the media and the FIA.

      Consider the way that Horner attacked Zak Brown, for example, for the comments he made about Red Bull breaching the budget cap, or the threats of legal action against Binotto for his comments on that matter – they were directed towards others, but fitted into a similar strategy of personal attacks.

      1. Coventry Climax
        23rd January 2023, 11:10

        Which, if Horner’s standard practice, is NOT Wolff in Horner’s head, but just Toto’s delusions of grandeur after all.
        Wolff isn’t worth it being in anybody’s head, even if he did pay the rent.

    2. MichaelN
      23rd January 2023, 14:15

      Unfortunately @rocketpanda that’s a character trait that’s inevitably going to come out again if Mercedes manages to be somewhat competitive again and the pressure on Wolff gets too much for him to handle.

      While his spats with Horner where more theatrical, the low point was probably reached when Wolff and his ilk insinuated (another sly trick of theirs) that Räikkönen had deliberately hit Hamilton at the 2018 English GP. I mean… Räikkönen. Still, Mercedes is more than happy to have Wolff represent their company in this fashion, so it’d be unfair to put all the blame on him. It’s more of a culture issue within that company.

      1. grat
        23rd January 2023, 22:11

        Or you could have a team principal claim a driver tried to murder Max.

  9. Profile Photo

    Qeki (@qeki)
    23rd January 2023, 15:08

    Well I don’t have the data from them but I would rate De Vries higher than Schumi jr.
    Where the boats could have gone…
    Sorry Rio I forgot you totally..

Comments are closed.