2023-10-18 10:37:00
Scuderia AlphaTauri was once a finishing school for would-be Red Bull Racing F1 drivers, but now they are taking a different path to take more control of their own destiny. In 2024, Scuderia AlphaTauri aims to establish a new identity under new team leadership, and there has also been a noticeable change in the approach to the driver line-up.
Gone is the priority of focusing on young players, taking Red Bull’s newest rookies and seeing if they can make it in F1 and exploring the possibility of a future move to the energy drink company’s main team. Instead, AlphaTauri will start the campaign with its most experienced driver line-up in years, with Daniel Ricciardo and Hiroki Tsunoda. The team’s engineers are happy with this shift to more experienced drivers. That’s because the current generation of F1 cars, combined with restrictive testing rules, is tough on rookies. Guillaume Desoutou, head of vehicle performance at Scuderia AlphaTauri, feels that the value of having a smart head has increased exponentially, which is why he and his colleagues are working with Hiroki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo. He says that’s why he’s excited regarding the partnership. “We’re looking forward to this driver combination, because these cars don’t get a lot of running and are under continuous development,” explained Guillaume Desoutou. “The car is always slightly different and the experience the drivers have will help them find the right mechanical set-up.” “We need a driver who can read that and understand it from a season perspective. “Is it a strength of the car, a weakness, or are there other circuits that might be a strength? That’s really important. Guillaume Desotou believes that nothing highlights the challenges facing newcomers more than the example of Liam Lawson. He performed well at tracks he knew, but struggled at his first venue. “You just have to look at Qatar,” says Guillaume Desoutou. “Liam had a very strong race on a course he knew. At Losail it was windy, the conditions were variable and there wasn’t much free practice where you might adjust your set-up. The conditions were definitely more difficult. “He’s great But you can see the benefit of having an experienced driver to help guide the definition of the car’s set-up.”One of the realities of the current generation of cars is that they have to figure out how to perform in their areas of strength. The key to machine performance is not how well you can perform, but how well you can overcome your weaknesses. Guillaume Desoutou believes this is another factor in the need for experienced drivers. Experienced drivers help solve the inevitable balance problems that every team faces over the course of a race weekend. “If you asked all the drivers, ‘How’s the car’s feel?’ you wouldn’t get a great answer. I don’t think anyone would be happy with the way the car was behaving. “Everyone would complain regarding the grip. Obviously it takes experience to be able to put that into the context of your career and say, “Okay, what is the driving style that is appropriate for these conditions?What is the driving style that is appropriate for these conditions?” “It’s obvious that more downforce will make you faster, but it’s not easy. I don’t think Max Verstappen’s car is easy to drive, but he’s probably able to get around the limits and get faster.” “They’ve probably found a way to drive that gets more performance out of them. That’s the challenge for young drivers.” “It’s very difficult to read exactly what the car is doing, so it’s hard to read the tires, the fuel load, the engine mode, etc. The wind, the track conditions, etc. are always changing. So the car is a moving target and it takes a lot of experience to really build up an image from that.” After missing five races, he will return to AlphaTauri at this weekend’s American Grand Prix. Ricciardo returns from the Singapore Grand Prix with a significantly upgraded car. There will also be a new floor coming this weekend in Austin. Commenting on the upgrade plan, Guillaume Desotou said: “There’s going to be a new floor…that’s the main part where we’re all doing a lot of development. There’s still a lot of performance to be found in the floor area.” We hope that it will be another step in the same direction, because it is fair to say that since Silverstone the updates have paid off and that is a very positive sign for our aero department. ”
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