Scuderia AlphaTauri are feeling fairly optimistic with the performance of their AT03, after their Pre-Season was brought to a productive close. Both Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda drove for the team on the final day.
The team across the three days completed all their programmes, as well as lapping the Bahrain International Circuit 371 times across the test. Throughout the few days AlphaTauri have gathered vital data and information, which the team will analyse in depth with the first Grand Prix just a week away.
Jody Egginton, AlphaTauri Technical Director, is pleased with the team’s performance across the test, one where the team have found a good understanding of the AT03.
“It’s been a very productive final day of testing, which has allowed a good number of test items to be covered and our understanding of the AT03 has moved a big step forward, with some interesting set up directions being identified. Pierre completed a program of long runs in the morning, where we gathered some important tyre data, and allowed the engineers to get a good read of the compounds.
“Yuki then took over for the afternoon and focussed on a range of mechanical and tyre related set-up items, which again yielded some useful data. Overall, we are satisfied with our testing here in Bahrain. We now have to process and analyse the huge amount of data we have collected to be as prepared as possible for the first race of the season.”
Franz Tost, Scuderia AlphaTauri Team Principal, is equally happy with how not only the test in Bahrain but also how the test in Spain went, he does believe though that some work is still needed to be done.
“The test period is over now and in one week we will have the first race. We’ve had two quite successful tests, first in Barcelona and now this week here in Bahrain. We have completed 371 laps (2,007.852km) across all three days. The most important aspect is that we’ve collected lots of data, which is crucial for further development steps, as we need to find out the correlation between the race track, CFD and wind tunnel.
“There’s still some work to do from the set-up side, but the engineers have now got quite a good understanding of which direction to take. We have a strong package, the car is reliable, we have two very good drivers and the team has made a big step forward, therefore I expect a successful season.”
