811 replies to this topic

[Anja]

A bit less than an hour until the team launch (probably with just the livery) and there's still no thread so I might as well start one. Following their senior team it's happening in New York so it might not be the most interesting event though...

 

In team news, Orlen is coming on board as a major sponsor (don't worry, without Kubica). Already can be seen on the new overalls, we probably should expect the livery to look similar: https://twitter.com/...000474780246017

[FLB]

[ANF]

Oh my god the livery is basically the same as last year that's awesome

[Otaku]

I'm not convinced. Ugliest so far.

[F1FanAJ]

[Anja]

I'm all for breaking up a two-tone design with some small contrasting accent - the first AT liveries did that very well with the red Honda logo. Here the red does stick out a bit too much, not even by its presence but it just lacks more graceful incorporation into the design. 

Edited by Anja, 11 February 2023 - 22:47.

[Stephane]

Honda was red on white, that's why it worked better.

 

Orlen looks too much like just a sticker.

[Rob G]

Oh my god the livery is basically the same as last year that's awesome

 

Not even close to the same. Here's last year's car. Just about the only thing that hasn't changed is the white wordmark on the blue sidepod.

 

[Rob G]

Not a fan of the jagged little design ahead of the sidepod, mainly because it's the only place that it exists on the car other than the wheels. Also, the red draws way too much attention to the halo. Overall, the new scheme is just bland and uninspired compared to their previous efforts.

[Ragingjamaican]

Better than last years! 

 

I still prefer their first Alpha Tauri livery with more white than the blue.

Edited by Ragingjamaican, 11 February 2023 - 23:31.

[jonklug]

I like the look, looks faster than last year, let's see what Nyck can do

[gillesfan76]

 

Looks like a cross between last season’s launch spec RB18 and the AT03.

 

The physical car I mean, not the livery.

Edited by gillesfan76, 12 February 2023 - 04:09.

[Clrnc]

Is this just the livery or the new car? Seems like the new car.

Anyway I love the livery, reminds me of Williams in the season where Mark Webber was driving for them

[RedRabbit]

Looks a LOT like the RB18 - imagine Red Bull decided they want a clean sweep at the top this year with both teams, and gave AT a slightly modified RB18 😮

[RedRabbit]

Looks like a cross between last season’s launch spec RB18 and the AT03.

The physical car I mean, not the livery.

Imagine it is a cross between the two? That would be one heck of a competitive car - probably put AT right at the top of the mid-field at least.

Maybe someone decided DeVries is potentially good enough to fight for race wins?

[Alburaq]

?
Car is still veeeeery different from every RB18 version. Some general concepts are similar but in practice there are 10x more differences than common features. It's a direct evolution of the end-of-season 2022 AT (at least the render)

 

The physical car is the 2022 AT with the older nose. 

Biggest differences between 2023 render and final 2022 AT, are the ferrariesque sidpod intakes that replace the square ones, and the narrower and reshaped rollhoop intake. 
The rest is almost identical to the latest 2022 AT.

(the 2023 nose cone looks like a refined version of the mark 2 2022 nose that was heavily inspired by the Ferrari long and pointy nose)

 

Edited by Alburaq, 12 February 2023 - 10:29.

[Ali623]

Tost clearly expecting much improved performance from the car this year, high expectations for Tsunoda 

 

 

“This year, as I expect we will have quite a competitive car, Yuki must always aim to be in Q3 and finish the races in the points.

 

https://the-race.com...emand-for-2023/

[ConsiderAndGo]

That’s Tsunoda gone at the end of the year, then.

[Anja]

With something like 1/4 of the entire F2 grid contracted to Red Bull, it's not like there wasn't going to be any pressure.

[Nemo1965]

https://www.youtube....h?v=ZQ20TZPtmA4

This preview picture… it looks like Nick and Yuki are going to be shot at dawn…

[Clrnc]

Looks a LOT like the RB18 - imagine Red Bull decided they want a clean sweep at the top this year with both teams, and gave AT a slightly modified RB18

Looks nothing like the RB18?!

 

(2) Why AlphaTauri refuses to make its 2023 F1 car a Red Bull copy - YouTube

 

The race literally have a video about how different it is

[Rumblestrip]

Not even close to the same. Here's last year's car. Just about the only thing that hasn't changed is the white wordmark on the blue sidepod.

 

 

I loved last years design, best on the grid. It made me think of the Brahams from the early eighties. Not so keen on this one.

Edited by Rumblestrip, 12 February 2023 - 11:52.

[PayasYouRace]

Alpha Tauri's liveries remind me of Williams trying variations on a theme from 2006 to 2013 or so. I like the red highlights this year. Smart looking car. Though I can see overexcited commentators confusing it with the HAAS.

[lewislorenzo]

That’s Tsunoda gone at the end of the year, then.

No doubt about that

[Alburaq]

Actually I heard AT will take avantage of its drivers small size & sit them even lower, so AT will get rid of halo (15kg saved) & the seat (drivers will sit on tub floor directly - 3kg saved) & put a canopy for better aero. Drivers will drive thanks to camera & steering wheel screen.
This is completely legal according to their catering departement.

 

[YamahaV10]

I really don't understand why AT isn't copying as much from Red Bull as they legally can. Instead of romancing the idea of going it alone.  Do it the way that Haas does with Ferrari. 

 

In 2021 , for a few races, Gasly was beating the 2nd Red Bull. Then in 2022, they finished below Haas with a car with the same engine as the WDC and WCC winners

[taran]

I am glad to see they are keeping the Brabham colours. Adds a touch of class to the grid.

[BRG]

This is completely legal according to their catering department.

 

 

Yes, but is it legal to have all the sign-writing in mirror image like that?  Isn't that bringing the sport into disrepute our something?  

[WouterF1]

 

 

Scuderia AlphaTauri

 

@AlphaTauriF

the AT04 hits the track for the first time with @yukitsunoda07 behind the wheel!

https://twitter.com/...451298593116160

[WouterF1]

 

[BRG]

A straight up denial?  They are To(a)st then....

[William Hunt]

Nyck is quite far off Yuki's pace so far this weekend, gap was surprisingly big.

[Laster]

Apparently Nyck couldn’t get the tyres into the right operating window, but there has been a bit of gap between them the whole weekend. I think I’m one of the few who actually believes Tsunoda will come out on top in this teammate battle - but I don’t think that gap is particularly representative either. Tsunoda though looked like he could have qualified 11th but he had some kind of issue on his final qualifying run that cost him over a second across the entire lap.

Edited by Laster, 05 March 2023 - 07:41.

[WindmillRacer]

I really don't understand why AT isn't copying as much from Red Bull as they legally can. Instead of romancing the idea of going it alone.  Do it the way that Haas does with Ferrari. 

 

In 2021 , for a few races, Gasly was beating the 2nd Red Bull. Then in 2022, they finished below Haas with a car with the same engine as the WDC and WCC winners

 

AT underperforming already, bodes not very well for this season. Reports about the "rocketship" engine prea-season turned out to be not true then ....

[TomNokoe]

Good job from Tsunoda. He only had 4 sets of Softs available for qualifying. 1 set is reserved for Q3 and he used the other 3 sets in Q1.

His Q1 time would've been good enough for 12th, so with some track evolution and a better lap he was knocking on the door of the top 10.

Jody Egginton said in their post-quali press release they have some upgrades coming soon.

[JBJ]

deVries got closer and closer during FP 1 to 3
And missed the boat come Qualy time

[messy]

1. The red ORLEN bits ruin what’s traditionally been one of the nicer liveries on the grid.
2. De Vries was getting closer but really didn’t shine in qualifying, Tsunoda did quite well and the fact he was knocking on the door of top ten pace gives me a bit of encouragement for their season. It looks like Yuki is going to need to step up though, for more than just a couple of sessions. De Vries is a funny one and I still think quite a strange choice. He’d have made sense for Williams, but…

[Disgrace]

1. The red ORLEN bits ruin what’s traditionally been one of the nicer liveries on the grid.
2. De Vries was getting closer but really didn’t shine in qualifying, Tsunoda did quite well and the fact he was knocking on the door of top ten pace gives me a bit of encouragement for their season. It looks like Yuki is going to need to step up though, for more than just a couple of sessions. De Vries is a funny one and I still think quite a strange choice. He’d have made sense for Williams, but…

 

Herta was their first choice, so de Vries is very much up against it to turn a cameo season into a longer term career. He needs to beat Tsunoda, and Tsunoda needs to beat him. At least one of them will be out at the end of the year.

[Laster]

^ That’s likely true but it does also require any incoming driver putting on a good showing this season. One of the F2 drivers needs to stand out - or Herta needs to get those superlicense points.

I thought Tsunoda had a good weekend overall today, it looks like he had the pace for 10th but a slow start and strategy not going his way ultimately cost him. De Vries meanwhile looked adrift but I expect he will improve a lot very quickly.

[Disgrace]

^ That’s likely true but it does also require any incoming driver putting on a good showing this season. One of the F2 drivers needs to stand out - or Herta needs to get those superlicense points.

I thought Tsunoda had a good weekend overall today, it looks like he had the pace for 10th but a slow start and strategy not going his way ultimately cost him. De Vries meanwhile looked adrift but I expect he will improve a lot very quickly.

 

Yep, agreed. But say hypothetically that Tsunoda beats de Vries, and none of the armada of Red Bull-backed F2 drivers deliver.

 

There would be little reason to continue with de Vries anyway. They might replace him with Drugovich or go completely left field and pluck someone from Formula E or something.

[midgrid]

Also, what if Tsunoda gets the better of De Vries and Iwasa does the best of the F2 drivers? Would the team go for an all-Japanese line-up next season?

[William Hunt]

I checked out the race lap times. In the first stint Tsunoda was a lot quicker as de Vries allowing him to creat a 10-11 second gap between them. In the second stint de Vries matched and often beat Tsunoda, gap stayed around 10 second all the time though. Same story for the 3rd stint but in the final part of the race  after the Leclerc virtual safety car de Vries dropped back further and lost time (that was the only part of the race when they had different rubber: Nyck was on hard then).

 

Overall Tsunoda had a much better weekend dominating de Vries in practice & qualy sessions + he was significantly quicker in stint 1 of the race. But in the middle part of the race de Vries recovered and did well matching Tsunoda. 

However what I also noticed is that Tsunoda was almost all race stuck behind Alex Albon, he was all the time (more than half of the race) running around 1.5 to max 2 seconds behind Albon but never able to pass the Williams. I assume it's because the Williams seems to have higher top speed as the AlphaTauri, Tsunoda was always just outside the DRS range. 
This also means that Tsunoda never really ran in clean air (either the Williams & AlphaTauri had identical speed but Albon may also have held up Tsunoda with dirty air).  De Vries did ran most of the race in clean air. So we don't know if Tsunoda was capable of quicker lap times when de Vries was matching him, it could be that Albon prevented Tsunoda to go that little bit quicker.

 

But since de Vries lap times in the middle part of the race were fine I think he'll be all right and will improve. 

Edited by William Hunt, 06 March 2023 - 13:39.

[Laster]

I think the Alpha Tauri is a little faster as Tsunoda did have to close the gap on Albon in the final stint after passing Zhou and De Vries, but ultimately the Williams has great straight line speed and so is a real problem to overtake. In that regard I think Albon’s good start got him that point and Alpha Tauri’s decision to just follow Williams into the pits both times and not try anything different be it getting track position or trying to create a tyre offset meant there was no way through for Tsunoda. Alpha Tauri will need to be a little more proactive in the future than they were yesterday.

[JBJ]

 

However what I also noticed is that Tsunoda was almost all race stuck behind Alex Albon, he was all the time (more than half of the race) running around 1.5 to max 2 seconds behind Albon but never able to pass the Williams. I assume it's because the Williams seems to have higher top speed as the AlphaTauri, Tsunoda was always just outside the DRS range. 
This also means that Tsunoda never really ran in clean air (either the Williams & AlphaTauri had identical speed but Albon may also have held up Tsunoda with dirty air).  De Vries did ran most of the race in clean air. 

De Vries was within a second behind Magnussen/Gasly during his first stint, Tsunoda was within a second behind Albon/Sargeant

Edited by JBJ, 06 March 2023 - 21:22.

[aportinga]

Pretty disapointed. I was really looking forward to NDV doing well. I hope they can put something together.

[zanquis]

I think NDV is still needing to adjust a lot, could and should have done better, but his team kinda dropped the ball during the VSC it left NDV very vulnerable against all the cars om better tires.

[William Hunt]

Don't think they dropped the ball there, de Vries most likely didn't have a set of fresh softs left leaving them no choice.

[JBJ]

Don't think they dropped the ball there, de Vries most likely didn't have a set of fresh softs left leaving them no choice.

Mediums?, anything better than old hards

[Laster]

I felt for Tsunoda, he had a good race jumped ahead of Bottas at the start had good pace on the mediums then had a big turn of luck with the VSC to jump ahead of the Haas and Alpine’s. But it just seemed the car lacked the pace in the end, he couldn’t break free of Magnussen despite having 9 lap younger tires.

De Vries on the other hand I’m not sure what his pace was truly like, he got mired in the pack after the errors in qualifying - but then he lost FP3 so getting the better of Tsunoda would have been a big ask this weekend. He made a little progress but wasn’t in a position to capitalise on the safety car.

[TomNokoe]

Consecutive P11s for Tsunoda, ah!