Franz Tost may not be heading into full retirement from Formula 1 just yet.

Red Bull-owned Alpha Tauri announced recently that the long-time team boss is stepping down at the end of the season to be replaced by Ferrari's Laurent Mekies.

"It's time to go. I'm 67," the Austrian said.

"I think this is the time where I will hand it over to some other people who can do a much better job than me."

However, Tost has now revealed to Osterreich newspaper that he is currently weighing up a new offer.

When asked how he is feeling about his impending retirement, he said: "I'm happy that I'm finally going skiing again in the winter.

"Then I got an offer to stay on as a consultant for another two years, so I'm thinking about that."

But until the end of the 2023 season, nothing will change - leaving Tost with the task of helping struggling team rookie Nyck de Vries to get up to speed.

Tost admits that he actually proposed to Dr Helmut Marko that Alpha Tauri sign Mick Schumacher instead.

"You are always wiser afterwards," he smiled. "But now we have Nyck and we are happy that he is with us.

"Even if we expected more at the beginning of the season, we can't forget that rookies today don't know many of the racetracks and they are hardly allowed to test.

"And the sprints make everything even more difficult," said Tost.