In detail: AlphaTauri’s plan to right the wrongs of last year
Technical director Jody Egginton accepted that the team underachieved in ’22 – something that it intends to put right this year.
“We’ve proven the level we can deliver at. And the team objective of wanting to operate in the top five in the constructors’ championship, we’ve proven we could do it. We’ve just got to do it and we’ve got most of the tools. We’re a little bit smaller – we have to work a little bit harder and a little bit more efficiently. But what we might lose in firepower, I like to think we can recover with quick reactions and tenacity. That’s the goal.”
“The chassis will be significantly modified because there’s a change in the rollhoop regulations and we need to look at it from a structural perspective because of that,” said Egginton.
“But there’s also aerodynamic benefit to be had like every other team, we’re interested in moving the front suspension forwards. It’s a key aerodynamic driver.
“But if you make mods to the chassis, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re starting from a completely new tooling and a complete new chassis pattern. There’s many steps between carrying over physical parts and just modifying tooling, so it will be a mix. The budget cap really forces you to look at it and the key point is to make sure that we modify all the structural parts which could be aerodynamic key drivers.
“There’s a lightweighting opportunity, but we should be able to get weight out of the car without doing anything new. We’re aero-driven ultimately, so we’re also in a position to hopefully take advantage with some carryover If you’re not investing in certain parts of the car and you can more efficiently use that money elsewhere to develop other parts of the car.”
The whole interview on The Race
By Erik van Haren
