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AlphaTauri have announced that a new senior management structure is to be put in place with current Team Principal Franz Tost stepping down at the end of the current season.
Ferrari’s Laurent Mekies will join AlphaTauri later this year as the turnover in Ferrari personnel continues. (Image Credit: Getty Images.)Former FIA executive Peter Bayer will join the team as Chief Executive Officer later this year, whilst Laurent Mekies, currently Sporting Director at Ferrari, will replace Tost as Team Principal at a date still to be confirmed.
The changes come after a disappointing 2022 season, in which the team finished ninth in the Constructors’ Championship. They have also had an underwhelming start to the current season, picking up a solitary point in the first three races.
A ‘key figure’ steps down
Described as a ‘key figure in the development’ of the team in AlphaTauri’s official statement, Tost joined the Faenza-based team as Team Principal upon its creation as Toro Rosso in 2005.
He led the team to its first victory, on home soil, at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix, and helped shape a generation of grand prix winners and champions, including Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, amongst others.
After almost two decades in charge, however, the 67-year-old Austrian has decided to make way for new faces.
“It has been a true privilege to lead the team for such a long period and a great pleasure to work with so many motivated and skilled people, who share my passion for Formula 1.
“With [sic] 67 years old it is time to hand over and with Peter as new CEO and Laurent as Team Principal, we found two very professional people, who will bring the team to the next level.”
The appointment of Mekies as Team Principal brings the Frenchman back to the team with which he achieved many of his early successes as a race engineer after stints with the FIA and Ferrari.
And AlphaTauri will bring in another former FIA man in the shape of Bayer. He joins as CEO having most recently acted as F1 Executive Director and Secretary General for Sport at the FIA.
The team says he will ‘oversee the strategic direction of the team at its facilities in Faenza and in the UK’.
Image Credit: Red Bull
