Franz Tost Reveals How Adrian Newey’s Resistance to Ferrari Led Sister Team Overpowering Red Bull in 2008

Sabyasachi Biswas | 23/11/2023
Franz Tost Reveals How Adrian Newey’s Resistance to Ferrari Led Sister Team Overpowering Red Bull in 2008

Red Bull is always known to be a superior team to its sister outfit AlphaTauri, formerly Toro Rosso. However, there was one occasion when the Austrian giants faced defeat against its sister team by 10 points. It was back in 2008, and the reason behind the defeat was Adrian Newey’s resistance to the Ferrari engine, as per Franz Tost.

Tost, the current AlphaTauri team principal, talked about this in the recently surfaced Beyond the Grid podcast. He said,

“It was an Adrian Newey car and as you know he always said another engine in Red Bull Racing because Newey came to the team, and didn’t want to have a Ferrari engine.”

Following this, the Austrian further revealed how Dietrich Mateschitz, the late Red Bull supremo, came into conversation with the Red Bull aero master and got him the Renault engine. Therefore, it created a difference between the two Red Bull-owned teams as one used a Ferrari engine, while the other went with Renault.

Notably, the Ferrari engines back in the day were regarded to be superior to any other engines, compared to Honda, Toyota, and BMW. In the end, it was Toro Rosso that was able to seal a GP win with the Ferrari engine ahead of Red Bull in 2008.

Sebastian Vettel gave Toro Rosso their first win, thanks to Adrian Newey

Tost, in the Beyond the Grid podcast with Tom Clarkson, also opened up about how Sebastian Vettel brought glory days with Toro Rosso back in 2008. Together with Ferrari’s engine and Adrian Newey’s brilliance, the sister team was in a better position than Red Bull.

Speaking about this, Tost said, “This victory started already on Friday because it was wet on Friday and many other teams didn’t go out.” Following this, the outgoing AlphaTauri boss emphasized how they decided to do the opposite and get ahead of everyone else by getting used to the wet track conditions of Monza.

In the end, Vettel clinched the 2008 Italian GP in Monza ahead of Heikki Kovalainen of McLaren and Robert Kubica of BMW Sauber. Admittedly, the German driver was also able to claim the pole position on Saturday.

As Vettel gave rise to an underdog story, it marked the beginning of the German star, who went on to create history in F1. Following that year, he switched to Red Bull, and a year later, in 2010, his domination began. In hindsight, it was the beginning of Red Bull supremacy with Sebastian Vettel, incredible Adrian Newey, Red Bull and Newey’s preferred Renault engine.

Post Edited By: Sabyasachi Biswas
Adrian Newey Franz Tost Sebastian Vettel

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Sabyasachi Biswas

Sabyasachi Biswas is an F1 journalist at The SportsRush. With over one and a half decades of love for the sport and five years of experience in the field, he dreams to be a regular at the paddock when the lights go out. A Red Bull fan and F1 fan in general over the years, he enjoyed watching Felipe Massa, Sebastian Vettel, and Max Verstappen dominate the track. Apart from F1, he's also a big-time Madridista and Federer fanatic. He was a sub-junior level footballer, won inter-district quizzes and debate competitions back in school. A travel freak throughout, he tries different cuisines and learns new cultures whenever he's away from the keyboard.

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