Tost: “There was no reason for them to swap places”

The race for the Dutchman was nevertheless very complicated due to his missed take-off. Indeed, he remained stuck on the grid. He therefore rejoined the race with a lap behind the rest of the field: « After stalling at the start, I thought it was over. I was pushed into the pit lane and was able to rejoin a lap behind everyone… But I kept pushing and it’s fantastic to finish 8th. My pace was very good and I really enjoyed all the overtakes. »

If he managed to climb back into the points, it’s because he benefited from the first safety car, which allowed him to overtake the entire field and get back on the same lap. However, his race ended with his refusal to give up his place to his teammate when he was not able to overtake Sergio Perez. He simply felt that this place was his due: “I don’t think there was any reason to give up my position after coming back from a lap down into the points. I think I deserved that eighth place.”

However, Carlos Sainz’s race was also very eventful as a gearbox issue also pushed him to the back of the pack: « It was clearly an eventful race! I made a good start. I had a good rhythm at the beginning of the race and the strategy seemed to be working very well. All of a sudden, at the first restart after the safety car, my gearbox shifted to neutral and I found myself at the back of the pack. I then started overtaking and had a lot of fun, climbing back up to ninth position, behind Max, who was attacking Perez. »

It was then that he asked his team to let his teammate know that he could try to overtake the Mexican, but his request was flatly refused by the Dutchman: « After watching him try to overtake for ten laps, I simply thought I could try for one lap to overtake him. If I hadn’t succeeded, I would have given Max his place back. I just wanted a chance, but he decided not to give it to me. It’s something we’re going to have to talk about within the team. »

In the end, Franz Tost agreed with Max Verstappen because he felt the Spaniard wasn’t close enough to deserve passing him: « At the end of the race, we thought Carlos might catch up to Max faster because he had new tires while Max’s were worn. So we calculated that Carlos might have a better chance of attacking Perez. But he didn’t catch up to Max enough to really show he could have done it. So there was no reason for them to swap positions. »

This type of incident, however, is likely to create tensions between the two teammates, who are eager to show that they deserve their place and that they can aspire to join the big sister team, Red Bull. But these are not the kind of considerations that particularly concern the management, who have shown in the past that they can live with such situations, as was the case between Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.