“A long to-do list.” That was what was presented to the AlphaTauri engineers during pre-season testing as new signing Nyck de Vries made his mark on the team. They had just a few days to get the car in better shape ahead of the first race in Bahrain, but technical director Jody Egginton was confident they had made a “strong evolution” from last season’s car.
But after just one race, AlphaTauri boss Franz Tost was unhappy, telling media he had “lost trust” in the engineers’ assessments of the AT04’s potential. The engineers told him the “car was fantastic” and that they were “making big progress,” he said, but they were “nowhere” after race one. What was behind such strong words?
Tost made it clear during pre-season testing what improvements he wanted to see from the car, particularly in terms of reducing its weight, which departing driver Pierre Gasly likened to “running with a backpack.”
“Last year we were not competitive. We were struggling,” said Tost ahead of the first race in Bahrain. “Our car was too heavy, we were not good enough on the aerodynamic side and made some other mistakes. And I hope that we can prevent this year.
“On the weight everything is fine, we are on the limit and on the aerodynamic side we made good progress.
“The aerodynamic team in Bicester did a really good job but we also must see how good our direct rivals will be and I think the first clear picture we will have after the first three races.”
But the team had a disappointing start to the season in Bahrain, leaving without any points. Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck de Vries finished 11th and 14th respectively.
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In comparison, this time last year the team had eight points after top 10 finishes for Gasly and Tsunoda – and that was despite Gasly’s Bahrain retirement and Tsunoda failing to even reach the grid in Jeddah after an engine problem.
There was little sign of the promised off-season gains. The team seem to have picked up where they left off. Despite all the teams being quicker in Bahrain than they had been a year earlier, AlphaTauri’s improvement was a modest two tenths of a second. Bar Alfa Romeo, every one of their rivals had found more time.
AlphaTauri scored a surprise win at Monza in 2020 and seemed to be making gains until the technical regulations changed last year. In their second season under them the gap has widened between AlphaTauri and…
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