AlphaTauri hints at ‘big progress’ from Honda ahead of F1 2020 start

Duncan Leahy

5 years ago

AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost his hinted on big progress from Honda side ahead of the 2020 F1 pre-season start.

Even though they have historically stayed towards the center of the mid-field pack, Italian F1 team AlphaTauri (formerly Toro Rosso) are ‘optimistic’ when looking ahead to the 2020 championship, with only few days remaining for the official track running to kick-off.

To justify this optimism – which pessimists may call naivete – AlphaTauri team principal Tost pointed to huge gains from Honda, which he reckons should help them to target for Top 5, with the experienced pair of Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat.

It’s also worth noting that improvements from Honda bode well for senior F1 outfit Red Bull Racing as well. “We are very optimistic for this season,” said Tost. “First of all, the car showed very good results in the wind tunnel.

“For second. Honda, our friends in Japan – in Sakura – made big progress during the winter months from the performance side as well as from the reliability side. Third, we have two good drivers. They showed that already last year.

“And last year, we just missed the middle of the podium. That means that you know what you have to do here, and we are really optimistic, and the team must perform well. We have a fantastic partner AlphaTauri and I am convinced we will have a successful season.

“We must be within the first five in the constructors’ championship. Our biggest competitors is usually Renault, McLaren, Racing Point and Haas. And the rest we will see. So far, we are satisfied with our achievements as Toro Rosso.

“But now we are hungry for more, we made excellent progress on the technical front and in terms of how we manage the race weekend, so we intend to build on that to improve further. 2020 will be a special challenge for all the teams with 2021 work.

“For smaller teams like ours, in terms of resources and personnel, we will have to face the complex task of finding the right balance between pushing forward on the development of this year’s car – the AT01 – and working on its successor for 2021.”

Looking at how the new AlphaTauri name and colors will impact the team, Tost denied that the re-branding will have any impact on the team’s day-to-day. However, he did acknowledge it was a big change in image.

“The name change has no effect on the way we operate as a F1 team at the race track or our facilities in Faenza and Bicester, but it is a very significant change in terms of how we present ourselves to the outside world: new name and new colours (white and navy blue), to mark a new long-term partnership which will be beneficial for both parties.”

Also continuing will be the partnership with Red Bull Technology – a similar programme like how Ferrari and Haas runs. “They will provide us with the complete hydraulic system, front and rear suspension, and the gearbox in 2020,” said Tost.

“This cooperation has been working really well last year as the level of engineering is very high and the parts they provided increased our reliability. Thanks to the synergies programme, our technicians in Faenza and Bicester can focus more on the details of those parts, which really can make the difference and give us more performance.

“Due to minor modifications to the sporting regulations in terms of how many components one can share with another team, some of the parts, for example the brake ducts which we could share last year, will have to be produced in-house now, which means their design and manufacture has involved more work in both Faenza and Bicester.”