Renowned team principal Franz Tost has finally provided his verdict on Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz. The AlphaTauri boss who nurtured both Verstappen and Sainz when they were young, is of the opinion that the Red Bull driver is a better driver than the current Ferrari icon.
Speaking about this in the recently surfaced Beyond the Grid podcast, retirement-bound Tost said, “Carlos is not at Max’s level in terms of natural speed, but he is a very hard worker and a very intelligent driver on the track.”
Even though the duo are hardly each other’s competition now, there was a time when the former Toro Rosso drivers were arch-rivals. Things date back to 2015 when both Verstappen and Sainz drove for the Red Bull sister team. Even though the Spanish driver had more experience than his Dutch teammate, it was the natural ability of Verstappen that favored him in the end.
The following year saw Red Bull promoting Max Verstappen to the main team, whereas Carlos Sainz stayed with Toro Rosso till 2017. Now, the Dutchman is still with the Austrian team and won three F1 world championships with them.
Sainz left Toro Rosso in late 2017 for Renault and stayed with them till 2018. He then spent two years with McLaren in 2019 and 2020 and moved to Ferrari in 2021 and has been continuing there ever since. Even though they are no longer the direct rivals now, but Tost liked the times when Verstappen and Sainz competed against each other in Toro Rosso.
Tost enjoyed the rivalry between Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz
As Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz went against one another in Toro Rosso, currently AlphaTauri, Franz Tost liked the situation. This was simply because the tension between the drivers would uplift the level of competition, something that was seen in the case of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in Mercedes.
Nevertheless, it was Verstappen who became the firm favorite because of his speed. Furthermore, he also beat Sainz in terms of points in the first year of Toro Rosso. The Dutchman was soon chosen to replace Daniil Kvyat at Red Bull.
Interestingly, Franz Tost also praised the Spanish driver for his impressive ability to read the situation and improve. All in all, Carlos Sainz is showing the same talent in Ferrari currently, and this might be the reason why the Spaniard is expected to remain at Maranello for the days to come.
