Scuderia AlphaTauri Team Principal Franz Tost was disappointed in the team’s result at the Bahrain Grand Prix, leaving the season opener empty handed with no points on the board.
Tost applauded the performance of sister team Red Bull Racing for their dominant campaign, finishing with a one-two, but admitted that his own team’s result left much to be desired.
“First of all, congratulations to Red Bull Racing for a fantastic start to the season, finishing with a one-two and so far ahead of the rest of the field. From our side, I am not satisfied with our performance.”
Tost said that the team is aware of their car’s shortcomings, and that they will work hard to bring in upgrades and changes to remedy areas in need of improvement.
“From a technical point of view, we have a lot to work on as the car isn’t on the level I expect. We know where the deficiencies of the car are, and we have to work to increase the performance with new upgrades, which I hope will be effective when they arrive.”
Though dissatisfied with AT04’s first competitive outing, Tost praised the efforts of both Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck De Vries for their respective drives, with a points finish just outside of reach for Tsunoda in eleventh place.
“After qualifying P14 and P19, we were able to recover in the race, and I must say that both drivers did a good job. Yuki pushed hard to finish in the top 10, but unfortunately, he missed out by a couple of tenths.
“Nyck also did well in the race; it was important for him to learn the characteristics of the car in race conditions and get as much experience as possible.”
“The aero development race continues unabated” – Jody Egginton
AlphaTauri Technical Director Jody Egginton shared his perspective on the performance of AT04 and the solid efforts shown by both drivers on race day to improve upon their starting positions and provide useful knowledge to the pit wall.
“Both Yuki and Nyck have done an excellent job tonight from lights out until the chequered flag. They managed the tyres well, provided good feedback to the pit wall, and delivered a good performance.”
As the team continues to learn about their 2023 car, Egginton said that reliability is a strength of theirs, while grip is a primary “limitation” for the team performance-wise– an aspect that they plan to improve upon through aerodynamic development.
“The AT04 continues to run very reliably which is positive, and although we’ve been fighting for the final points positions with Yuki tonight – with Nyck also putting in solid lap times – we are primarily lacking grip. The key to addressing this limitation is our aero development, so this is the focus.”
On the strategy side, Egginton said that the team will have to debrief on the decision to not call De Vries to pit during the late-race Virtual Safety Car, which was deployed after Charles Leclerc came to a stop on the edge of the track with a technical problem.
“The call to bring Yuki in under the VSC for his final stop was a no-brainer, however, we missed out by not pitting Nyck at the same time, so the strategy group need to go through the numbers to see why this call appeared a marginal one at the time.”
The development race between teams continues to move at full speed, according to Egginton, with new upgrades and packages expected to pop up throughout the season’s run as the entire grid looks to gain a competitive advantage.
“Although the first race of the season is over, the aero development race continues unabated, with the aero and manufacturing groups focused on delivering updates on a rolling basis to move the performance forwards.”
