Xevi Pujolar, Max Verstappen’s engineer at Toro Rosso has been dropped, as the team tries to sort out internal politics within the organisation. It seems that Pujolar was not getting along with the English engineers in the team but was protected as he was working with Verstappen. With the Dutchman gone to Red Bull, Pujolar is no longer required, but it seems he won’t be going to Red Bull Racing with Max. The Spaniard has been in motor racing since 1995, working his way up from karting to the Nissan Workd Series to Formula 3000. He started in F1 in 2002 with Eddie Irvine at Jaguar Racing and then moved to Williams, where he worked with Juan Pablo Montoya, Ralf Schumacher, Mark Webber and Alex Wurz, before moving to HRT in 2009. He returned to Williams to work with Pastor Maldonado before moving to STR in 2014.
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joeblogsf1 
Futchman? Doesn’t sound too pleasant
Better than Duckwit!
How does Max feel about that?
Though he probably feels how Marko tells him to feel.
Absolutely not.
Ahhh…. Red Bull & Politics. Where would we be without them ?
Seems a bit harsh. do any of these guys have contracts that prevent immediate dismissal. Surely employment law (at least here in Ireland) prevents a company from summarily dismissing an employee unless gross misconduct has taken place. On what grounds are they firing him?
JOS
I don’t know how Joe can say the two STR engineers were dismissed by STR, could as well be they left STR, but I assume that he is more informed than I am. (inside information) which if the inside information is of the Bernie kind, it is very effective with the F1 accredited media.
there were reports that the two engineers and STR has fallen-out with decisions over qualifying and race strategies issues (major disagreements).
I didn’t. If you are going to criticise me at least read what I write!
Joe. what is supposed to be meant by someone being “dropped” from his job?
Fired
I don’t think it applies to sports people. Can you Imagine how they treat their mechanic’s or their regular staff?
Applies to F1 staff (drivers and technical staff included). It’s usually a question of what terms they go on. How long the “gardening leave”, and how much money changes hands.
But F1 teams are not exempt from employment law. They just write the contracts carefully and have enough budget for the required financial compensation.
Joe, what is your view on the overall Toro Rosso situation now? After that weird Kvyat demotion they suddenly look like a team of Red Bull rejects not future stars. Do you see it as a stopgap measure (i.e. Kvyat will be sacked for good after some test for Gasly in Barcelona or later midseason)? Or may be Austrians finally decided upon selling TR off to Alfa so they dont care anymore and just need someone to fill the slot in the meantime?
No idea
I was casting my eye over comments generated recently by readers here and noticed a drop in the number of responses for some reason, including to your notebook series which, personally, I find very interesting. The most read recently appears to have been the Verstappen series of articles, such as this one. I wondered why? Maybe you’re getting harder and tossing out the more abusive replies – don’t blame you!
Nope. I am doing the same as before. Generally political stories get fewer responses than driver stories.
I think we’ve run out of arguments on political stories, given the non-decision making non-process.
It’s up to the people who have earned loads of money from F1 to admit that they deserved a bigger share than they got. It’s up to them to confess to shareholders that they were screwed; that small teams had a rough deal; but who would be brave enough?
Joe,
What do you see happening with Sainz? Assume at some point if not promoted to RB he will be out of TR. Does he have a long term future? I rate him highly and i think the hype around verstappen (deserved hype ofcourse) has detracted from just how well he has stacked up against him.
I agree
as I already said on these pages before, the red bullies has ruined more drivers careers than they have made.
Kvyat’s mistake in Sochi is all they needed/been waiting for, one fast tracked hype job replaced with another with 10x the temper tantrums.
Your sageness should surely have you doing your own blog Sonny……..
LOL
Remember that Sainz was a replacement for Kvyat, while Verstappen was announced much earlier (to Vergne’s disappointment)
The whole thing seems shabby, shabby, shabby. Vicious, malicious and apparently incompetent management. We may not say smacks of Nazism or Stalinism only the great dictator may use such words and then in a positive way. Else censorship. Even the word ogre redacted. Not you Joe and maybe I should not use your blog to have at others but F1 really is becoming ever more unseemly.
I am sure you know what this means but it is rather unclear to me
Sorry Joe, fair comment, written in haste. Enlarge on another occasion.
Pujolar not popular, eh. (Sorry, my resistance is really low this morning.)
Pojular Unpopular perhaps.
Pujalor is surplus to requirements. One assumes the British Staff are cracking open a barrels of Ale to send him on his way.
Assumes being the operative word…
off track(but not much) – somehow i see Daniel Ricciardo elsewhere in 2017 or a year after – writing is now on the wall – Max is the new Golden Boy in RBR, ironically as the same happened with Webber/Vettel, where a young gun was put ahead of an ”old dog” . If RIC keeps VES at bay – even better for him. If not – not a big issue – Max is everywhere pronounced as Wunderkind. I wonder where it leaves the same good Carlos Sainz as Kvyat is to disappear from RBR/STR at the end of the year anyway.
There are probably many good reasons for this not happening (Pascal possibly being one of them?).. but Sainz to Williams 2017.
You bin reading my mind, Adam? If I was The Boy Sainz I’d be doing my level best to find out what certain teams intend to do when their former World Champions[*] retire.
* – Felipe was WC for about five seconds in 2008 😉
I well remember 2008 Mr Larrington. On the edge of my seat cheering then stunned as I watched the realisation and eventual anguish wash across the face of Massa Senior. I often refer to that as an example of the human stories that underpin great sporting moments. The record books will not show Felippe was F1 WDC 2008, but he did well enough in my book to be held in high esteem. Not to take anything away from Lewis of course.
Hi Joe, do you think that this is a step towards the possible sale of Torro Rosso to Russian interests?
No
I find myself wondering what is meant by “dropped”.
One or two teams over the last couple years, have stated that the people back at the factory volunteer for the extra duty of accompanying the cars to races, and I have admittedly taken this to mean that nobody is hired specifically to attend races, with no role back at base.
So, with this Pujolar fellow, is he COMPLETELY out the door, or does this just mean he stays back at the factory doing engineering stuff, while some of his peers continue at the races?
He’s leaving.
Speaking of people being “out”, Niki Lauda is taking a break from commenting races on RTL.
First time this happened, it seems RTL was caught out as they had to use one of the race commentators to stand in for Niki, but now they use Timo Glock.
I wonder why this is case, are there so many discussions going on at the race track that he is to busy being a Mercedes Chairman, or maybe someone does not want him to speak his mind on TV as he always so refreshingly does?
It is supposedly due to budget cuts.
Just before last year’s photo of Niki and Toto holding hands, there were reports that some in the team were upset that the Chairman was not showing Nico quite the same amount of love in his statements; and the team stopped him being an official spokesperson alongside Toto and Paddy.
He still talks to the press
He is out because RTL made cuts, so I gues they could not afford Niki no more
So I guess that explains why John Booth, formerly of Manor, was parachuted in several weeks ago supposedly as a consultant. He was brought in because the team management had determined that the team was dysfunctional, and wanted a different set of eyes and ears to assess the situation and make recommendations.
I suspect that the personnel changes were partly or wholly due to recommendations from John Booth, even if the decision to swap the drivers had other underlying motives.
Ooooh yes, could well be. Good spot!
Joe,
I don’t know if you can (or are willing to) comment on this, but is Franz Tost such a difficult person to work with? He comes across as rather dull (to me) in interviews, but does he has a temper?
There have been a few very public and also very vocal fall-outs with him in the past (Scott Speed, Jaime Alguersuari, Tonio Liuzi, now Pujolar)
Only with STR have I ever read about “altercations”, “shouting matches” “heated discussion” or “blow-ups” involving the team principal. Or has this all been blown out of proportion by sections of the media?
I have to say that Tost is pretty much a blank canvas as far as I concerned. Whenever I ask to do things with him, he runs away and hides. He has a tendency for saying ridiculous things in press conferences and being completely blinkered about his team, but then he has passion, which is a good thing.
Don’t forget Sebastien Bourdais, who also fell out with the team after the 2008 season, and was fired in July 2009. He threatened to sue for unfair dismissal, and the team ultimately paid up his contract. Toro Rosso is part of the overall Red Bull philosophy of “up or out”.
I spent my life in the record and TV branches of the entertainment business rather than the F1 branch but this is all very familiar. Screw up and you’re out. I once worked on a show where a guy screwed up before lunch and he was not only gone but replaced after lunch.
Not surprising at all.
Now the question is what will Putin do?