Jody Egginton admitted the Spanish Grand Prix weekend was a ‘tough’ one for Scuderia AlphaTauri, but it was pleasing to not leave the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya emptyhanded as Yuki Tsunoda secured tenth place.
Pierre Gasly’s race was compromised early with a damaged front wing, which made for a difficult afternoon for the Frenchman, but Tsunoda had a cleaner day, battling hard for the minor points against the two McLaren F1 Team drivers, BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team’s Sebastian Vettel.
Egginton, the Technical Director of the Faenza-based team, said both drivers battled as hard as they could throughout the sixty-six-lap race but could only manage a single point when they had hoped for more.
“Today’s race has been tough, but with both drivers battling hard we managed to come away with a point,” said Egginton. “Pierre picked up front wing damage early on, which made the car a bit trickier to drive and cost him some time.
“Yuki had a cleaner start and was in a battle with the McLarens and Alonso early on in the race, fighting for points. With the hot conditions moving the race to a three stop for the majority, track position was key, and Yuki’s final stop was timed to prevent Vettel, who was one of the two stoppers, getting ahead when we stopped and this worked out well.
“Then it was a case of getting past [Mick] Schumacher and trying to get back on terms with Alonso, who had got ahead earlier in the race.”
Egginton says the team will be looking to understand why they were not as competitive as they would have liked to have been in Spain, and they expect to be more competitive next weekend in Monaco.
“We have a lot to understand from this event, as we have not been able to get the car working as we want, but we have a few ideas already and the expectation is that we will bounce back in the next events,” he said.
AlphaTauri currently sit seventh in the Constructors’ Championship after the first six races of the season with seventeen points to their name, ahead of the Haas F1 Team, Aston Martin and Williams Racing.
