Red Bull adviser Dr Helmut Marko is not impressed by the progress AlphaTauri have made this season after a disappointing opening 13 rounds.
The Red Bull junior side were, at times, vying to be best of the rest in 2021, with Pierre Gasly qualifying in the top six 15 times over the course of the year.
He has done so once this season, while team-mate Yuki Tsunoda has managed a best qualifying result of eighth.
The Frenchman’s best race result was fifth place in Baku, where he qualified seventh, while a mighty performance from Tsunoda took him to seventh in Imola.
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These are, without a doubt, impressive showings from the Italian side, and they were akin to the kind of performances that they had become accustomed to last year.
Sadly, they have been fewer and further between this season than last, and like many others on the grid, they have struggled to muster consistent performances under the new technical regulations.
When things have come together, results like Gasly’s in Baku have materialised, but as a feeder team to championship-leading Red Bull, Dr Marko does not feel the Faenza-based squad have been good enough this year.
“No, AlphaTauri only came with a reasonable update in Le Castellet, they didn’t have enough updates,” explained the Austrian when asked by Motorsport-Total.com if he was satisfied with the team’s performances thus far.
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Expanding on the afternoon in France, the 79-year-old believes that Gasly hindered his own performance with a mistake, and he blamed Esteban Ocon for Yuki Tsunoda’s non-finish after the Frenchman hit him on the opening lap.
“The race was bad, Gasly made a mistake there when he lost his points position trying to overtake,” added Dr Marko.
“Ocon drove into Yuki and the car was massively damaged, the update improved a bit and was successful, now you have to work from there.
“But the claim to be successful in the midfield is currently not fulfilled.”
The failure to score points at Paul Ricard came after Gasly had failed to make it out of Q1 at his home race.
AlphaTauri sit eighth in the Constructors’ Standings after 13 rounds of the 2022 season, seven points adrift of Haas.