AlphaTauri targeting top five finish in 2020

AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost hopes his experienced driver pairing of Daniil Kvyat and Pierre Gasly can help them break into F1’s top five in 2020.

Formerly known as Toro Rosso, the team rebranded for 2020 to promote Red Bull’s fashion brand AlphaTauri, but they will head into the season off the back of their best campaign to date in the sport last year.

Two podium finishes helped the team to P6 in the Constructors’, while they have retained the services of Daniil Kvyat and Pierre Gasly, making it the most experienced line-up the Red Bull junior team have had.

So now, Tost hopes the duo will have a car that they can use to propel AlphaTauri up the grid.

“We never had such experienced drivers and it depends now how competitive the car will be,” he told RACER.

“I hope that we will do a step forward there as well and then the target is quite clear: We have to improve our performance and we have to finish in the top five in the constructors’ championship.

“I hope (Renault is in reach). It depends now who is building a better car. Who is making more progress with the new car and who is developing it in a better way during the season. I hope it will be AlphaTauri.”

The team don’t enjoy the kind of budget that Renault do, but their technical relationship with Red Bull does prove to be a massive boost.

“We improved in comparison to 2018 quite a lot in all the different areas. We were much better on the aerodynamic side, but also on the mechanical side thanks to Red Bull Technology, because we had the previous year’s suspension in the car — front and rear — the gearbox from them and the hydraulic system from them, which helped us a lot,” Tost explained.

“It also helped the reliability, because I think we were second in those terms.

“We also made good progress with the vehicle performance, came up with some new solutions which improved the performance of the car. We had a better understanding of how to handle the tires and how to manage the tires, and the race team made some good steps forward.

“We had some really competitive pit stops as well, although there were some ups and downs that we have to improve. And we had at least three very good drivers!

“If you work together with a partner then over time you get a better understanding from both sides. I expect that we will get good cooperation this year and that the team will make another step forward thanks to Red Bull Technology.”

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