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AlphaTauri believes its 2020 car was “the best the team has produced” – but is optimistic that this year’s challenger will be able to match it.
The Italy-based squad claimed their second F1 victory at the Italian Grand Prix last season via Pierre Gasly, 12 years after Sebastian Vettel also triumphed at Monza as Toro Rosso.
But Gasly’s victory came with a great deal of luck and generally AlphaTauri was racing through the midfield battle, often collecting points by finishing around P8 or P9.
These kinds of results are likely to be what Gasly and his new rookie teammate Yuki Tsunoda will be fighting for primarily in 2021, although AlphaTauri has already expressed hope that they can improve on last year’s P7 in the Championship. world of builders.
“I really believe that the AT01 [2020 car] was the best car the team had produced, ”said AlphaTauri technical director Jody Egginton, quoted by the French version of Motorsport.com.
“The STR14 [2019 car] was not bad, but the AT01 has been very well developed during the season and its performance has rewarded the hard work of everyone involved.
“For 2021, major changes to the car required the use of our two development tokens. Therefore, we decided to keep the survival cell.
“We think the chassis and PSU were a good base to work on, so we were happy to be spending our tokens elsewhere for 2021.”
The 2021 team is coming soon to a track near you pic.twitter.com/2yNOrVmTRe
– Scuderia AlphaTauri (@ AlphaTauriF1) February 26, 2021
Discover the AlphaTauri 2021 merchandise collection via the official Formula 1 store
As for where the tokens were spent, they opted for a new nose and front suspension – and Egginton is hoping AlphaTauri can adapt to changes to this year’s aviation regulations to recoup some of the l support which was lost as a result.
“The aerodynamic numbers were affected by the aerodynamic change, but we worked really hard to recover the lost performance and also to improve the car’s aerodynamic operating window,” Egginton added.
“This activity will continue throughout the season, with the allocation of resources between the 2021 and 2022 projects being reviewed and adjusted as needed to maximize the potential of both projects.
“When will the car be fast? It’s not something I would like to quantify at this point. All in all, taking everything into account, I would say we’ll probably see a similar level of performance in mid-2020. “
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