In 2023, AlphaTauri had to fight its way back after a poor start to the Formula 1 season – this year, the team is taking a different approach
AlphaTauri is taking a “moderate” approach to developing the car for 2024 after the team struggled to recover from a poor first half of the season last year
Because it began the last Formula 1 season with a car that regularly dropped its drivers to the back of the midfield. But it managed an impressive recovery, which included a major aerodynamic overhaul and a switch to Red Bull’s rear suspension.
These steps helped the team to regularly win points and ultimately to jump from last to eighth place in the constructors’ championship.
An even closer alliance with sister team Red Bull is planned for this year, meaning that more customer components will be used. Apart from that, Head of Engineering Jody Egginton is confident that the team can make further gains without pursuing such an intensive approach as in 2023.
“We want to continue on the path of progress we made in the second half of the year” “The goal is to achieve something similar to what we did from 2020 to 2021.”
“We’ve been there before. We’ve done it, we just need a solid winter and a good start to the season. Then our season can be a bit … not easy, it’s never easy, but a bit more progressive. And we can develop the car in a slightly more structured way.”
“Last year, everyone in the team tried to get everything on the car as quickly as possible, which is what you want to do in Formula 1,” explains Egginton.
“But we want to be able to take a more measured and consistent approach. And if the car is a bit stronger right at the start of the season, we can refine our approach. That will be a good indicator of our progress,” says the Technical Director looking ahead.
AlphaTauri showed last year that it can recover from its disappointing start. However, Egginton points out that it is much better for teams to have a more structured approach to in-season development.
“Sometimes it’s good to take a breath and say: hang on a minute, we’ve tried our hardest to get back to where we want to be. We’ve made it very clear publicly and internally which of our goals we’ve missed and we’ve had to address them over time.”
“But everyone also makes progress during the season. So in addition to the goal you set for the first race, you always have to keep going.”
“That’s why my praise goes to the team. We have managed to catch up, but we still have more work to do to get to where we want to be. But if we keep going like this, we can be roughly where we were in 2021. We had a good start and a solid, consistent season. “
