AlphaTauri set to take ‘significant step’ forward at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix
AlphaTauri's Nyck de Vries on track for testing in Bahrain.
AlphaTauri hope that the revised floor they are bringing to Imola will be a “significant step” forward.
Although the Italian team have two points so far in 2023, that is largely down to the displays of Yuki Tsunoda who is performing well above where the AT04 is expected to run.
Such is the low performance of the AlphaTauri car over the past two years, rumours emerged that parent company Red Bull were looking to sell and although that was later dismissed, an improvement is still expected.
As such, AlphaTauri are one of many teams set to bring major upgrades to the race in Imola this weekend with head of vehicle performance Guillaume Dezoteux suggesting a new floor will be “a significant step.”
“We’ll bring a completely new floor in Imola,” Dezoteux said, as per Motorsport.com. “We are looking forward to having it on the car. It is a significant step, it’s a big step, so we hope that can deliver on expectations.
“There’s always a question mark on the quality of correlation. But so far the updates we brought have been working on expectations.
“This [new for Miami] front wing worked well and in line with the wind tunnel prediction, so we’re looking forward to this day.”
Upgrades can vary in their level of effectiveness but Dezoteux remarked that the midfield is so tight that even a small improvement can have a big effect.
“The midfield is very tight,” said Dezoteux. “You have more than 10 cars in 1% of lap time. So the opportunity is there. If the step is good enough, that can gain us several places on the grid, but everybody’s developing.
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“So I think this is what we will see all year is this race in the midfield that’s going to be very interesting.”
As to what exactly the team have changed in regards to the floor, Dezoteux said they had altered the geometry in an effort to create more outwash.
“We have changed the geometry around the flap elements, and the end plate to try to create more outwash,” he noted.
“On this set of regulations it has been about containing the outwash and the wake of the car, but this has a cost in performance.
“All the teams are trying to find many small solutions to try to reproduce the outwash, which is beneficial for the flow structure and the downforce you generate from the underneath of the car.”
