Franz Tost was disappointed to see Scuderia Toro Rosso score points with only one driver in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, with a mix up in the pits costing both Daniil Kvyat and Alexander Albon time and ultimately positions.
Kvyat was set for his best result of his Toro Rosso career ahead of the miscommunication in the pits, which came as a result of a late safety car period, caused by Lando Norris and Lance Stroll crashing out of the race at turn two.
Mechanics were expecting Albon to pit first but were surprised when Kvyat arrived, with a quick run to grab his tyres costing the Russian enough time to fall to the lower reaches of the top ten, while Albon fell to eleventh and outside the points after being forced to wait for his team-mate to be serviced.
Tost, Toro Rosso’s Team Principal, admitted the delay in the pits was costly as the team had the pace to score points with both drivers at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with Kvyat only equalling his best result with them in ninth when he could have finished as high as seventh.
“The starting positions for the race were quite promising, Dany started from P9 with used options, and Alex started from P11 on the new option tyres,” said Tost. “This worked well and both drivers had a good start: Alex moved up a position while Dany maintained his.
“The car showed a strong performance and the drivers did a really good job until the safety car came out, when we lost everything because of a radio miscommunication between the pit wall and the mechanics.
“Dany pitted first, although the mechanics understood it was Alex, therefore we had troubles with the correct tyres and lost a lot of time. As a result, we dropped a few positions on track. At the end of the race we finished with only one car in the points, which is very disappointing because we know we could have achieved more today.”
