AlphaTauri boss Tost jokes 'I don't trust engineers' after point-less start to season

After seeing the AlphaTauri AT04 hit the track in anger, Team Principal Franz Tost joked that he doesn't "trust" his engineers anymore as he seeks results from the squad.

AlphaTauri were one of three teams to leave the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix without points, as Nyck de Vries finished 14th and Yuki Tsunoda finished 11th, behind Williams' Alex Albon in P10.

In Saudi Arabia, the Faenza-based team look to open their account – but Tost wasn't happy with the performance of the car, as he gave a frank assessment of the team's situation.

READ MORE: Hamilton announces split from long-time trainer and physio Angela Cullen

"We expected a much better car. We struggled in Bahrain; it looks a little bit different here," he said. "I hope we are at least with one car in [Q3]. But we have to do a lot of things to make the car faster. Especially on the aerodynamic side, there are different programmes going on.

"The engineers tell me that we are making some good progress, but I don’t trust them anymore… I just want to see the lap time, because this is the only thing which counts."

Asked why he said there was no trust in his engineers, Tost replied: "Because during the winter months they told me the car is fantastic, and we come here and we’re nowhere. What can I say?"

AlphaTauri are of course working on updating their current package to take on the midfield – and Tost said updates will be delivered to "nearly every race" this season.

READ MORE: Ferrari make further power unit changes ahead of Saudi Arabian GP

"We are coming up with updates to the next races. We’ll bring something to Melbourne and Baku. It’s within our programme that we will bring to nearly every race a small upgrade.

"The question now is, do we go in the right direction? In the winter months, at least on paper, on the computer, we made big progress in comparison to last year’s car. But all these figures nowadays, I don't trust them anymore. I want to see that we can go in the right direction. I think now, with all the knowledge we have, after the Bahrain test and race, the engineers should be in a position to sort it out," he concluded.