AlphaTauri is one of those teams for which the start of the new season turned out clearly worse than the makers of the AT03 car, including technical director Jody Egginton, had expected.
Suffice it to say that after the first seven stages of the Championship, she only takes 7th place in the Constructors’ Championship and has only 17 points to her name – a year ago at this stage of the season she finished fifth and achieved 45 points. points, ie almost three times more. The recent Monaco Grand Prix was another bad weekend for AlphaTauri, with Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda not finishing in the top ten.
However, Egginton believes the team could fight well for the points in Monaco, and the car was capable of quite a fast pace, but for some reason the potential could not be realised.
“The level of mechanical grip wasn’t bad, but other than that, if your car can generate enough downforce with increased ground clearance, it works quite well in Monaco,” Egginton commented after the race. – Because we raised the car a little bit there, and the suspension was tuned softer than most teams.
While in the previous stage in Spain, where there are high-speed sections on the track, the car had to be tuned for that. It’s a very different approach compared to what we used in Monaco, where we tried to optimize the car for very slow corners.
And if your car has order in the handling, and drivers feel confident behind the wheel, and gradually increase the speed, it pays off. We were more or less happy with the car as certain aspects of its aerodynamics were suitable for the urban circuit, but the mechanical clutch was also OK.”
Unfortunately, the riders couldn’t fully exploit the AT03’s potential – also because of the mistakes the team made. Notably during qualifying, Pierre Gasly openly criticized AlphaTauri’s actions, saying he “doesn’t understand them”, when at the decisive moment he simply didn’t have time to start a fast lap, after which he dropped out of the race. fighting and couldn’t get into the second session.
The problems continued into the race as Pierre lost time at both pit stops – both when he switched to intermediate tires and when it was already possible to fit slicks. As a result, he lost the 10th position and lost the opportunity to earn at least one point. However, after the race, he said the team apologized to him.
The first set of technical innovations in AlphaTauri was prepared for the podium in Imola, and the next will have to wait – the team is limited by the need to fit into a tight budget.
“We understand that the car performed well in Monaco overall, there were no significant issues, but now there is a race for aerodynamic upgrades in the championship and we also want to implement updates,” Egginton said. “However, due to budgetary constraints, we have to combine novelties into one large complex.
You may have to come to a few races without any new products, but when we can prepare this complex it will bring immediate noticeable improvements.”
Source: F1 News
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
