Franz Tost scoffs at Isack Hadjar’s ‘best day of my life’ Mexican GP statement

AlphaTauri boss Franz Tost made it clear that debuting in FP1 should not be the best day of Isack Hadjar’s life as he claimed, Tost wanting wins and titles from the Frenchman.

Hadjar reached a career milestone when he debuted in Formula 1 at the Mexican Grand Prix, his FP1 outing the first time he had got behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car.

And it was a smooth outing for the Red Bull junior, who ended the session P17, with Oliver Bearman in the Haas the only rookie ahead of him on the timings page.

Franz Tost has higher hopes for Isack Hadjar

When Hadjar, the driver who Red Bull driver programme boss Helmut Marko calls their “little Prost”, completed the session, he was understandably full of excitement from the occasion, declaring that this was the “best day of my life”.

However, Tost challenged that statement, arguing that this should be merely the start of Hadjar’s Formula 1 journey.

“I don’t think that this was his best day of the life,” Tost told reporters in Mexico. “I hope that he wins races and championships, this shouldn’t be the best day of his life.”

Tost’s response came off the back of a session where he said Hadjar had impressed the AlphaTauri team, to the point where Tost sees this bright F1 future for him.

“He did a good job, I must say,” Tost continued. “We were all impressed by him.

“他很平静,他有三个不同的年代ets of tyres, the prototype tyre, the medium and the soft and with all these different compounds I must say that he really did a good job.

“His technical feedback was also quite good, because if you compare it to the data, it’s a very high correlation. And we are really impressed and I think that he will be soon in Formula 1.”

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Tost, who will retire at the end of F1 2023, has seen a host of young Red Bull racers get their start with the junior team where he has been in charge since 2006, including a certain Max Verstappen who made his FP1 debut in Japan when only 17.

But, when asked how “daunting” that FP1 debut can be, Tost said it should not feel that way, rather it should be a source of motivation as he stressed to Hadjar that he should not feel pressure.

“No, it should be motivating, not daunting,” he said. “I like drivers who are optimistic, looking forward.

“They never should take this pressure on them, I said, ‘Just enjoy driving your first time a Formula 1 car, don’t care about anything and go for it’.

“There is no pressure or nothing. If the driver loads the pressure on himself, he will not compete well.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner confirmed that Hadjar will return to action in Abu Dhabi at the wheel of the Red Bull RB19 this time, with an all-rookie line-up appearing in that FP1 session as Formula E racer Jake Dennis drives the sister car.

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