AlphaTauri have unveiled their AT04 race car for the 2023 F1 season.
AlphaTauri’s latest race car has retained the now traditional blue and white livery colour scheme but with addition of red on the rear wing plus wheel and sidepods, and will be driven by Yuki Tsunoda plus Nyck De Vries, who replaces Pierre Gasly following the Frenchman’s move to Alpine.
This season will mark De Vries’ first full-time season in F1 after he participated in various FP1 sessions for Mercedes, Aston Martin plus Williams last season, during which he scored points on his race weekend debut for the latter team at Monza after Alex Albon was taken ill.
Like Red Bull, AlphaTauri this year opted to unveil their car at a launch event held in New York City but unlike their sister team, their AT04 unveiling was in the form of a trailer albeit as part of New York’s Fashion Week which focused mainly on the fashion brand than actual car itself.
introducing, the Scuderia AlphaTauri AT04 & AlphaTauri AW23 collection! ?
live from New York Fashion Week! ? pic.twitter.com/EHhphyfq0u
— Scuderia AlphaTauri (@AlphaTauriF1) February 11, 2023
AlphaTauri also released a series of interviews with Tsunoda and De Vries plus Team Principal, Franz Tost previewing the season, during which they spoke about their own expectations.
Tsunoda who is entering his third season in F1 revealed that consistency is his primary ambition, as he commented: “My main goal is to perform more consistently in every race, independently from the car’s performance, and to score points more consistently.
“I want to be more in control of myself at all times, work well with the team, understand the car as quickly as possible, right from the first race in Bahrain. I want this year to be my best performance of the three years in terms of getting to Q3 and scoring points.”
This season though will see Tsunoda experience a change of teammate as De Vries joins the team but the Japanese driver believes that they can “build” upon their “good relationship,” as teammates – having previously known each other over the years.
De Vries meanwhile is excited to be part of the Red Bull family through AlphaTauri, having “grew up” competing against the brand and their various athletes in motorsport over the years
On what it means to finally become part of that family, De Vries added: “It has very strong values in sport and is all about performance, winning and basically daring to be different and to try. It’s been great.”
The Dutchman though believes that although he still has the rookie tag, he will have “healthy pressure” to perform across a full Grand Prix weekend in a F1 car, having not ran in FP2 at Monza before he replaced Albon at Williams after completing FP1 with Aston Martin.
De Vries proceeded to explain the experience of driving for “different teams in different environments will bring a lot of value,” whilst also feeling that he has had less “pure track and race time,” compared to other rookies.
Tost though has iterated that the pressure will be mainly on Tsunoda who struggled with the AT03 last season and now enters his third campaign in F1, as he expects him to “always aim to be in Qualifying 3 and finish the races in the points.”
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