In Formula 1, teams often feed off each other as part of deals or partnerships.
Alfa Romeo share a strong relationship with Ferrari, as do Haas, but in the most formal circumstance, AlphaTauri are the sister team of Red Bull, meaning that parts are often shared between the two.
All teams must complete independent designs of certain parts of their car, for example their nose cones, wings and wheel drums, they are allowed to purchase some parts from other teams, hence the forming of the aforementioned relationships.
While sometimes the rules have seemed a bit blurred, with teams accused of copying each other, generally this is well respect rule in the sport, with the smaller teams benefitting from the ability to purchase parts from the bigger and more successful teams.
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AlphaTauri’s head of trackside engineering Jonathan Eddolls has suggested now that next year the team, formerly known as Toro Rosso, will be looking to develop more parts by themselves, purchasing less parts from Red Bull than they did this year.
“We’re designing a few more parts for ourselves, actually, for next year,” he claimed.
“Just because the way Red Bull work, their lead times and their production capabilities is phenomenal. They can leave everything right up to the last minute – which is fantastic.
“However for us, obviously we want to develop our aerodynamics around certain aspects that we lock in now. So for examples, to take some of their components that we only find out the final design very late in the year, could influence our aero because we’ve developed them around a different geometry.”
AlphaTauri will be entering 2023 with a different driver line-up, with Nyck de Vries coming in to replace Pierre Gasly, who is heading to Alpine.
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Eddolls has explained that because everyone has had a chance to understand the new regulations this year, the design of a 2023 car has been made easier as they now know how everything works.
“Obviously for next year, having the benefit of having run the cars and knowing the operating winder, you can save weight, there’s various things that you can do because we know more about how these cars, these tyres and these regulations will work.”
Without a real lead driver next year it is imperative that AlphaTauri can provide a competitive car because the feedback that they will get from Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck de Vries will not come with the understanding and experience that it would if it came from Gasly.