Q: Franz, looking at Toro Rosso’s season so far, the first two races were pretty sensational: both rookie drivers in the points and the best start to a season for Toro Rosso. Then you had two races with reliability issues, before a fantastic Barcelona qualifying session that gave a hint of the true colours of the chassis and the drivers. Was that all a bit too good to be true? Franz Tost: No, not too good at all - it was what we had expected. What came after these first two races was rather unexpected and Barcelona was a super showcase of what our car can do - if we only had more pace. Our aim is to finish fifth in the constructors’ championship. And the reason I set this goal was my belief that we have a good car, that we have two good drivers and that the team has made a good step forward. The first race would have been even more sensational had Max (Verstappen) not retired. He was out on the prime tyres and was controlling cars behind him with option tyres. If he could have finished the race on option tyres it would have easily been a sixth or seventh place. A technical failure put him out.



Q: (Technical director) James Key seems to have done a great job with the car… FT: …yes, he did a great job. It was last year’s work as it takes time to build a good car and build up a good team.



Q: So is it the power unit that is letting you down with the results? Again it was very visible last weekend that whilst the one-lap pace for qualifying was superb, the race pace saw a dramatic drop… FT: Yes. But we all know that Renault is working very hard so I hope that we will get power units that are more reliable and have more power.



Q: But you are already on your fourth and final power unit… FT: Yes, the fourth engine was fitted into the cars Friday night.



Our aim is to finish fifth in the constructors’ championship. The reason I set this goal was my belief that we have a good car, that we have two good drivers and that the team has made a good step forward. Franz Tost

Q: Teams have been discussing the possibility of increasing the engine allowance to five. But as nothing has been confirmed, you will probably get penalised at every race from Monaco onwards… FT: If we change an engine, yes. But that will depend on what we have to change: a complete power unit or just parts.



Q: Isn’t that frustrating? You have a good car, you have super promising drivers - and if you change the power unit you get penalised to the very end of the season… FT: These are the regulations!



Q: What do you imagine the car is capable of with another power unit? FT: That is very theoretical - but I am pretty sure we would show better performance.



Q: What was new on the car for this week’s? FT: We changed something on the floor and the front wing. Bits and pieces, but nothing major as the car is working well and because we are a small team we don’t have the resources to make major changes.



Q: Your two young drivers - Verstappen and Carlos Sainz - have been stunning. They demonstrated their talent again in last Saturday’s qualifying session with P6 and P5 respectively. Did you expect that much from them? FT: I expected it from them because otherwise they would not drive for us. They both have shown that they are capable of being in the Red Bull driver pool. We had a tough winter to prepare them, but we successfully managed it as the first races have shown. I always said that if we give them a fast and reliable car they will always finish among the ten best - otherwise we could never have targeted P5 in the constructors’ championship. Yes, there will come a crash period, as you cannot expect from such young drivers to have a flawless season, but we are prepared for that.



Q: Your new nickname is ‘kindergarten cop’! FT: Ha, it doesn’t matter what they call me. As long as my youngsters score points that’s fine with me! (laughs) Q: If you had to predict their future, what do you see? FT: The future in F1 is almost impossible to predict. What I can say right now is that both are highly skilled and committed - and very disciplined. If the environment comes together to open a window for winning races they will win races. They have all the traits for success.

Until reliability is sorted, Renault will not think in the direction of either taking over a team or branding a team. Franz Tost