F1 2023 – Alphatauri’s Remediation Strategy

AlphaTauri is anticipating a return to success in F1 2023 season with their new car after a disappointing season last year. The updated vehicle is designed to take advantage of increased aerodynamic performance and will receive continual upgrades throughout the season.

Tonight, AlphaTauri will unveil the AT04 during a launch event in New York as part of the city’s fashion week. While the car showcased at the event is not anticipated to be the 2023 model, there will be pictures of the actual design released.

Last year, AlphaTauri only managed to earn 35 points and dropped to ninth place in the championship despite having the seventh quickest car on average. This poor performance was a result of a combination of factors such as unreliability issues and operational mistakes that occurred at inopportune moments.

The most significant of these issues occurred in Monaco where Pierre Gasly was piloting the car, which was the third fastest behind Red Bull and Ferrari. However, after a red flag in Q1, the team failed to release him into the pitlane queue early enough for him to complete his out-lap and set a fast enough lap time to progress to Q2.

Even if AlphaTauri had achieved its expected results last year, it would still have been a disappointment for the team, which had made substantial progress in Formula One’s midfield in previous years. They won a race in 2020 and finished fifth in 2022 with a car that was competitive with McLaren and Ferrari.

There were numerous factors that contributed to AlphaTauri’s decline, and it was not surprising that one of Formula One’s smaller teams had difficulties adapting to the new ground-effect technical regulations.

Additionally, AlphaTauri underwent a transition of moving into sharing Red Bull’s wind tunnel (however, as per F1 regulations, aerodynamic data cannot be shared between the teams). This process was completed in early 2021, and it would have had an impact on the team as it adjusted to the changes, both in terms of its wind tunnel testing procedures and the switch to producing 60% scale models instead of 50%.

Despite these challenges, Technical Director Jody Egginton acknowledged that the team underperformed in 2022 and has plans to rectify that this year.

“I don’t want to use that as an excuse because as the leader of the group, I know what the team is capable of and I take responsibility for when things don’t go well,” Egginton stated in an interview with The Race late last year.

“I have faith in the people and the processes we have in place. Moving wind tunnels is not an easy task, but we made the decision to do so and it was the right choice. In the second year, our expectation is to get back on track and operate at the level we demonstrated in 2020 and 2021,” Egginton said.

“We have demonstrated our capability to perform at a high level. Our team objective is to compete in the top five of the Constructors’ Championship, and we have shown that we can achieve it. We just need to do it again. Although we are a bit smaller, we can make up for it by working harder and more efficiently. We might lack some resources, but I believe we can compensate with quick responses and determination. That’s our goal,” Egginton said.

AlphaTauri will continue to utilize components from Red Bull, including the RBPT Honda engine, as well as the gearbox and hydraulics from Red Bull.

The chassis of the car will undergo modifications, partly due to the changes in the primary roll structure regulations, as well as adjustments aimed at enhancing aerodynamic development possibilities. This could include moving the front suspension forward, which Egginton confirmed was under consideration.

“The chassis will undergo significant changes due to the alteration in the rollhoop regulations, and we need to examine it from a structural point of view because of that,” said Egginton.

“In addition, there are aerodynamic benefits to be gained like every other team, and we are interested in moving the front suspension forward as it is a crucial aerodynamic factor,” Egginton added.

“However, making modifications to the chassis does not necessarily mean starting with completely new tooling and a brand new chassis design. There are many steps between retaining physical parts and just adjusting the tooling, so it will be a combination of both. The budget cap forces us to consider this, and the crucial factor is to ensure that we modify all the structural parts that could be crucial aerodynamic drivers,” Egginton explained.

“There is an opportunity for lightweighting, but we should be able to reduce the weight of the car without introducing anything new. Our focus is ultimately on aerodynamics, so we hope to benefit from some carryover. If you’re not investing in certain parts of the car, you can use the money more efficiently to develop other parts of the vehicle,” Egginton said.

Another weakness last year was inconsistent aerodynamic development, which resulted in a slow roll-out of upgrades and a decline in competitiveness for AlphaTauri as the season progressed.

Several major upgrades were introduced, but there was not a shortage of new components. AlphaTauri aims to phase them in more steadily and consistently in the future.

In 2023, the goal is to have more frequent, smaller upgrades. This approach aligns with AlphaTauri’s strategy from prior to 2022, after experiencing difficulties in making a major upgrade package successful in 2018.

“Our in-season development has been inconsistent in terms of achieving consistent aerodynamic performance,” Egginton stated. “At times, we have produced strong wind tunnel results and found performance on certain parts of the track, which is positive. But in other periods, we have fallen a bit behind compared to previous years.”

“This has forced us to integrate updates into larger upgrades, which goes against the direction we were heading in the previous two to three years. We aim to return to a more gradual development approach in 2023,” Egginton explained.

The hope is that the gradual development approach will enable more consistent improvement of the car’s characteristics. The objective is for the AT04 to not only have increased aerodynamic performance, but also to give the team more precise control over its sensitivities and characteristics. This would allow AlphaTauri to once again aim to compete at the front of the midfield.

F1 2023 Alphatauri’s Remediation F1 2023 Alphatauri’s Remediation F1 2023 Alphatauri’s Remediation

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