Breaking news
Formula 1
Tost: F1's constructor definition is “out of date”
Scuderia AlphaTauri Formula 1 boss Franz Tost believes that the definition of a constructor is “out of date”, and that teams should be able to buy more parts from rivals.
Adam Cooper
Published: Aug 20, 2020, 10:09 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The Austrian’s view clashes with the prevailing mood in the paddock in the wake of the Racing Point copying case, with the FIA confirming that it wants to ensure that teams fully comply with the requirement to design their own listed parts.
Tost believes that his team should be allowed to take even more advantage of its relationship with sister outfit Red Bull Racing, with the two teams sharing resources via design facility Red Bull Technology.
“The personal opinion from my side is that teams should be able to buy much more from another team,” said Austrian. “Why? Because for me this philosophy that every team must be a constructor is out of date.
“I know all the F1 purists say, ‘Ah, we must be a constructor. Every team must design everything in-house.’ The question is, and you know the engineers are saying this, but how do you finance everything?
“Because we reached such a high level on the technical side, the top teams have such a fantastic infrastructure. If someone wants to come into F1 – even the teams which are in F1, if they want to catch up – this is very difficult, and nearly impossible.
“And you spend millions. And I’m just asking, what for? I’m asking, why does every team have to have its own wind tunnel, has to have its own CFD, has to have 500-600 employees? OK, now there is the cost cap coming. But nevertheless in my opinion we still spend too much money, especially now under these difficult economic circumstances.
“But the regulation is how it is. Personally I still think back to the days when we came to F1 with Toro Rosso and we just got a one-year-old car from Red Bull Technology, and we could race with a third of the money.”
Read Also:
- FIA to clamp down on "reverse engineering" of F1 cars
- McLaren withdrew Racing Point appeal after FIA assurances
Tost also questioned the FIA’s plan to rein in copying of cars via photography or other “reverse engineering” techniques.
“You cannot forbid that teams make photos from the other cars,” he said. “This is also as old as F1 is itself. The question is now, coming back now to these special brake ducts, of course you cannot make pictures from the inside, from all the small parts of the brake ducts, out on the race track.
“That means we have to get these parts to make the photos and this is now the question whether this is legal or whether this is not legal, whether you violate intellectual property rights or not. But this is not in my hands to decide. I think this is then the question the International Court of Appeal will have to answer.”
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article McLaren: Testing at new F1 tracks would send “wrong sign”
Next article Mercedes “unlikely” to have resolved tyre problems
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Adam Cooper
RB: Tsunoda “mentally on a different level” in 2024
Formula 1
Formula 1
Japanese GP
Apr 10, 2024
RB: Tsunoda “mentally on a different level” in 2024
Andretti planning F2 and F3 entries to promote US talent to F1 team
Formula 1
Formula 1 Apr 10, 2024
Andretti planning F2 and F3 entries to promote US talent to F1 team
Andretti F1 team formally opens new Silverstone facility
Formula 1
Formula 1 Apr 10, 2024
Andretti F1 team formally opens new Silverstone facility
More from
Racing Bulls
Tsolov named Red Bull, Racing Bulls reserve driver after missing out on 2027 F1 race seat
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
23 h
Tsolov named Red Bull, Racing Bulls reserve driver after missing out on 2027 F1 race seat
The impressive stats underpinning Liam Lawson's career-saving F1 season
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
1 d
The impressive stats underpinning Liam Lawson's career-saving F1 season
Latest news
Why aerodynamics will become "even more important" under 2027 MotoGP regulations
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
13 min
Why aerodynamics will become "even more important" under 2027 MotoGP regulations
Sebastien Bourdais hopes latest WEC success will remind teams of his value
WEC
WEC WEC
Monza
1 h
Sebastien Bourdais hopes latest WEC success will remind teams of his value
"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
3 h
"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027
Feature
Discover prime content
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Formula 1
By Kevin Turner
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe