AlphaTauri technical director Jody Egginton insists that the 2022 car has a flexible package that lends itself well to upgrades.
The Italian side have struggled somewhat to put performances together with the first iteration under the technical regulations, despite making Q3 on four occasions in the opening seven rounds of the year.
Three have come from Pierre Gasly, who has also been knocked out of Q1 twice, while team-mate Yuki Tsunoda has started the race in the bottom five on three occasions.
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Gasly and Tsunoda have scored five points finishes between them on Sundays this year, so all in all, inconsistent is the word most suited to their start to the year.
The Red Bull junior team has failed to score in either of the last two rounds, so it may become apparent that changes need to be made to the car further along the line.
Should that be the case, Egginton believes that they have a good foundation to work from.
“Underneath the bodywork we have tried to create a package to give the aerodynamics maximum freedom,” he said, as per the Italian edition of Motorsport.com.
“If we have to make a major change to the bodywork to gain aerodynamic gain, we like to think we have a package protection.
“There is nothing more frustrating than finding something in the wind tunnel and then having to do a lot of invisible, non-performance work to get it into the car.”
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However, in part due to the budget restrictions this season, but also because the team have a progressive path they are going down, the Briton does not want to make any drastic alterations.
“We have tried to live up to the future but we have a direction of development, we are not changing the car,” explained Egginton.
“It’s a development – we are not going to come up with something totally different.
“But the key point, as far as I’m concerned, is the ability to protect the designed package, because with the budget constraints you can’t afford to do what you want to avoid doing non-performance upgrades just to have the latest aerodynamic thing on the car – unless you are talking about big numbers.
“But the budget limit dictates you have to spend the money wisely so we try to avoid doing unnecessary work while trying to protect the packages.”
AlphaTauri are currently seventh in the Constructors’ Championship on 17 points, two ahead of eighth-placed Haas.