2023-11-24 16:32:03
AlphaTauri plays big this weekend in Abu Dhabi. Seven points behind Williamsfive ahead of Alfa Romeo and nine on Haas, the small Scuderia can experience very different scenarios depending on the progress of this Grand Prix. And the financial stakes are not negligible: assuming that the prize pool shared by the teams is one billion dollars, there would be $27 million (€25 million) of difference between the seventh and tenth position.
AlphaTauri therefore arrived at the Yas Marina Circuit with a significant change in the floor of the AT04. This was able to be put to the test in free practice, where the team had the advantage of being the only one to run its two starters. Daniel Ricciardo et Yuki Tsunoda were ranked third and tenth, then twelfth and fifteenth, respectively, in the two sessions.
The results are mixed: the drivers are convinced that the potential of the developments is tending to be confirmed, but have not yet found settings favorable to healthy behavior of the car. “It definitely feels like the performance has gone up a notch, but at the same time the car is slightly harder to control. I just feel like it handles differently. You just have to find the perfect balance.”analysis Tsunoda.
“I found the day positive. The balance is slightly more open, slightly more disconnected. But at the same time, maybe it’s just a completely different philosophy and that’s why the settings that we used don’t work. The EL1s were much worse, the EL2s already seemed better. We have to look in the data to see what we can improve, what we can do to make it closer to what I want .”
Daniel Ricciardo (AlphaTauri)
When we ask him if he had any oversteer and/or oversteer, the Japanese answers: “HAS almost everything. I just need to choose one that fits this package. I don’t think we can eradicate everything. Whatever makes the car faster, I’ll take it. We just need to figure out what’s best for now.”
As for the veteran Ricciardo, he describes this day as “positive”although the festivities were disrupted by two red flags following accidents in FP2: “This evening, the driving was clearly a little more troubled. I believe that some had a really new soft tire, others had done an exit lap with it. There is surely a bit of that too. But 12th place is not “I don’t worry too much. I think we’re better than that.”
“We made changes for FP2. It was probably a little too much in some places. So I’m very comfortable for tomorrow. The morning went well, we really found some positives in the car, so it’s just a matter of refining it now.”
Comments collected by Matt Kew
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#Mixed #results #AlphaTauri #developments #understeer #oversteer