Franz Tost, the Team Principal of Scuderia AlphaTauri, says pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was a success for the team after a virtual trouble-free six days of running.
Daniil Kvyat drove the AT01 on the final day of testing on Friday, with the Russian completing one hundred and sixty laps of the Spanish circuit, with a best lap of 1:16.914 putting him tenth fastest of the fourteen drivers to hit the track.
This ended the testing programme, with AlphaTauri completing seven hundred and sixty-nine laps across those six days, with three hundred and eighty-five being completed across the three days of test two.
“For Scuderia AlphaTauri, pre-season testing was a success as the car shows good performance and is reliable,” said Tost. “We were also very lucky with the weather because most of the days we had quite high temperatures for this part of the year.
“It was only in the second week, especially on Thursday afternoon, that the wind has made running a bit trickier, but this gave us the possibility to test our new AT01 in different conditions.”
‘I Believe we had a Strong Pre-Season’
2020 saw a reduction of testing from eight days to six, but Tost feels AlphaTauri got the most out of the track time available, with Kvyat and Pierre Gasly both putting in a good number of laps without any major problems.
Tost praised the team and engine suppliers Honda for a ‘fantastic job’ to get the AT01 ready for pre-season testing, and he felt it was an ‘almost seamless’ test for everyone in Spain.
“We’ve had two fewer days of testing this year, but I think we made the most out of it and learned a lot during these six days about the car, covering a total of 3580 km without any major problems,” said Tost. “We experienced a few little issues which is normal at this stage, but we are generally satisfied with how everything went.
“The whole team did a fantastic job to get the car ready in time and performed well during the condensed schedule at the track. Honda made another step forward with the PU, improving both performance and reliability, which made our running smooth.
“I believe we had a strong pre-season thanks to the efforts from everyone in Bicester, Faenza, and Sakura, which resulted in an almost seamless test.”
Tost Praises Drivers for ‘Professional’ Job and ‘Valuable’ Feedback
Tost was also full of praise for his drivers, with both Kvyat and Gasly giving valuable feedback to the team as they learned more about the AT01. Kvyat was the busier of the two in week two, completing two hundred and twenty-one laps, while Gasly ran one hundred and sixty-four laps.
With the testing work now over, Tost has confidence that AlphaTauri are well prepared for the start of the upcoming season, which begins next month at Albert Park for the Australian Grand Prix.
“Both Pierre and Daniil have performed extremely well, providing valuable feedback for the engineers to help develop the AT01,” added Tost. “They worked professionally which made analysing all the data easy and efficient.
“I’m confident we are well prepared for the upcoming F1 season and I am looking forward to the first race in Australia.”
