AlphaTauri has outlined it aims to start the 2024 Formula 1 season with a strong package to avoid having to take a “flat out” approach to car development like last year.
While Red Bull dominated proceedings through 2023, AlphaTauri began last season struggling with an uncompetitive car that yielded just five points in the first 14 rounds.
However, a substantial upgrade package in Singapore – including taking Red Bull’s rear suspension – and a sequence of floor updates elevated AlphaTauri into regular points contention, eventually climbing up to eighth in the Constructors’ Championship.
The Faenza squad, which will be rebranded ahead of the 2024 season, will benefit from utilising even more components from Red Bull as part of a closer technical alliance.
However, Technical Director Jody Egginton insists that AlphaTauri can continue that late-season momentum by ensuring it is not playing catch-up from the outset this year.
“We want to keep on this trajectory of progress we’ve been on in the second half of the year,” he told Motorsport.com.
“The target is to achieve something similar to what we did in 2020 to 2021. We’ve been there before, we’ve done it, and we just need a solid winter and to hit the ground running.
“Then our season can be a little bit… not easy, it’s never easy, but a bit more progressive. And we can develop the car in a slightly more structured way.
“[Last] year everyone in the team was flat out trying to get everything to the car as quickly as we can, which is what you want to do in Formula 1.
“But we want to be able to take a more measured and consistent approach. And if the car is a bit stronger out of the box at the start of the season, we can refine the approach we want to do, and that’ll be a good measure of the progress we’re making.”
Despite the team’s recovery leaving it three points shy of pipping Williams for seventh place, Egginton asserts that AlphaTauri still ended up short of achieving its overall target.
The British engineer highlighted how the intensity of the F1 development race during the season compromised the Italian outfit’s chances of realising its ambitions further.
He added: “Sometimes, it’s good to take a bit of a breath and go, ‘Well hang on a moment, we’ve been flat out trying to get back to where we want to be.’
“We were very clear publicly and also internally on which of our targets we missed, and in time we needed to address those.
“But in-season, everyone’s moving forward as well. So, on top of where you want it to be for race one, you’ve got to keep going.
“So, credit to the team. We managed to claw it back, but we’ve got more work to do to get to where we want to be.
“But if we can keep on this trajectory, [we can be] similar to where we were in 2020 to 2021. We hit the ground running in 2021, and we had a good solid season and were consistent.”
