Lantz Tost, F1 team representative for Scuderia AlphaTauri, admits that reliability issues this season were a “big shock” to the team.
In the 2022 season, Scuderia AlphaTauri has not finished the race in 8th place or higher. Pierre Guthrie and Yuki Tsunoda finish in that order in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, respectively.
This represents a disappointing start for Scuderia AlphaTauri. And the team’s struggle reflects the struggle of the senior team Red Bull Racing, which is also under Red Bull’s possession.
Piel Guthrie was the first driver to retire at the Grand Prix under a new era of F1 regulation and stopped in Bahrain after a car broke out. On the other hand, Yuki Tsunoda endured a fierce weekend in Jeddah, was unable to set a lap in AT03 in qualifying, and broke down on the way to the race grid the next day.
Scuderia AlphaTauri had a lot of trouble unexpected, given that everything looked very promising in terms of reliability in the pre-season test.
“It was a big shock to us,” Franz Tost told Motorsport-magazin.com.
“I had no problems during the tests in Barcelona and Bahrain. I was driving thousands of kilometers without problems.”
“When the season started, suddenly there was a big problem with the reliability of the car.”
Yuki Tsunoda admits that he is already using a Honda engine with a third Red Bull badge, which is the season’s radix limit, and Franz Tost will inevitably take a grid penalty using the fourth. ..
“Of course, the reliability issue is shocking, and as a result, Yuuki will have to start backwards later in the season,” Franz Tost added.
“This is definitely not the way we wanted to start the season.”
For Scuderia AlphaTauri, who finished third in the F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix last season and finished sixth in the Constructors’ Championship, the initial goal was to be in the top five.
But to be fair, McLaren is in fourth place, with Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull already well ahead of the rest.
Scuderia AlphaTauri is in 8th place in the Constructors’ Championship after three early races, which seems to be a rather difficult order.
“The midfield is very competitive. It’s really tight,” Franz Tost added.
Category: Category: F1 / Alpha Tauri