AlphaTauri looked to be a team on the up in 2021, scoring 142 points and finishing an impressive sixth in the final year of F1’s previous era.
Despite naming an unchanged driver lineup of Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda in 2022, Red Bull’s sister team struggled to adapt to the major regulation changes that came into effect at the start of the year, producing an uncompetitive car compared to their rivals.
Team principal Franz Tost has recently admitted that his team believed that they had breached the budget cap last season and were relieved to have passed the FIA’s calculations.
AlphaTauri only managed to score a lowly 35 points in the first year of F1’s new era, a shortcoming so severe that star driver Pierre Gasly has opted to join Alpine for next season as he hunts to become a regular podium contender.
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Reflecting on the season just gone, Tost has not held back in his dissection of his team’s performance, claiming that they were simply not good enough in every aspect.
“I cannot be happy with this season because we did not achieve our goals,” he told GPFans.
“We were simply not good enough in all the different areas. The car was not competitive enough, and therefore, it was difficult to score points, to be in front like we were last year a couple of times.
“I hope that our engineers understand what they have to do for next year’s car and that we will come back with a more competitive package.”
AlphaTauri have replaced the departing Gasly with 27-year-old Nyck de Vries after the Mercedes reserve driver was allowed to cross the divide to Red Bull’s sister team.
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The Dutchman will pair Yuki Tsunoda, who Gasly claims is ready to step up to the plate and become the leader of the team following two reasonably successful years in Formula 1.
Tost has also claimed that his team will be less dependent on Red Bull next year, as the team look to develop more of their own parts to upgrade their car rather than purchasing parts from their senior team.
Following the tragic passing of Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz, there have been rumours that AlphaTauri could come up for sale, as the new leadership team look to focus on a single F1 venture, which they claim is only just beginning despite their recent success.