Decoding The AlphaTauri Hype

In the lead up to the 2021 F1 Season, AlphaTauri made a powerful decision.

Their design synergy with Red Bull Racing is essentially one of the core pillars of AlphaTauri’s existence. Without sharing parts and designs to the greatest extent legally, the entire operation will fail to be feasible, as showcased by Red Bull and AlphaTauri’s powerful stance against outlawing effective ‘B Teams’ over the years.

Yet, for 2021 AlphaTauri did not procure Red Bull Racing’s 2020 rear end design, which they could do legally (under the rule that Customer teams can purchase year-old homologated and locked in parts from their suppliers). 

Instead, they made the shift from a ‘junior team’ to a ‘sister team’, starting by using its development tokens towards its nose and front suspension and not buying in the complete Red Bull rear end. Already after the first race of the season, the changes seem impactful; AlphaTauri today seem to have a certain layer of confidence surrounding them. ‘Is the hype real?’, is the question on everyone’s lips.

The 2021 Bahrain GP

As with their entire existence, purely looking at the final result presents a very skewed picture about AlphaTauri’s true performance and the opening race of the 2021 season, the Bahrain Grand Prix was no different. On the surface, for a team aiming to compete in the higher midfield for P4 in the title, having only one points finisher who scored merely 2 points when their key rivals have had far more impressive results can be seen as somewhat of a failure. 

This is amplified even more so when considering the immense bags of pace and potential they unloaded on Saturday during qualifying. Their eventual points scorer, debutant and resident F1 fan heart-warmer Yuki Tsunoda finished P2 in Q1 and Pierre Gasly was tremendous in Q3, putting the car up to P5 for the start of the race.

So what happened on Sunday? Why did AlphaTauri score just 2 points in a race where there were external disappointments for their direct rivals in Alpine and Aston Martin? What do their flashes of brilliance truly mean?

Where they truly stack up

To understand their beaming rays of potential, we must trace exactly where they come from. Apart from the aforementioned changes to their front end design, which has seemingly offered them great front end stability and downforce, which is showcased by their strong Sector 2 times in Bahrain during qualifying, the real kicker has been the outstanding Honda Power Unit.

Now, we did not expect to say this just a few years ago, did we?

Jokes aside, Honda’s immense push to win a championship with Red Bull in 2021 before departing F1 has been pretty well documented. This season, the intent has been to compress the engine by reducing the size of the camshafts and other key components, but deriving more power out of them. To my far-from capable engineering brain, all of it is just pure magic, and magic we did see on the track.

Media Credits: Red Bull Content Pool

Power unit gains that boost AlphaTauri in the mid-high speed corners?

While one would be compelled to use the speed trap data as the pure representative means, that can be largely swung around by the setup of the car. Case in point, Alpine evidently is tagged as the worst of the 4 power units in F1 today, for which they compensated by running a low drag setup, getting them the top honours on the Speed Trap, with Fernando Alonso clocking in at a high of 330 kph during the race.

Yet, because of their revamped power unit, AlphaTauri have the leverage of running greater downforce without losing too much straight line speed. Where this has a significant impact is on the overall stints, where Yuki Tsunoda, the only AlphaTauri driver to have a representative race in Bahrain, consistently clocking in lap times better or around that of the Aston Martins and the Alpines, on a similar strategy.

This level of consistency eventually got AlphaTauri the 2 points through Yuki Tsunoda’s outstanding debut performance. The biggest example of this was Tsunoda’s eventual pass on Lance Stroll on the penultimate lap. Not only did he wrap himself around Stroll by going 5 laps longer than him on the middle stint, giving him a fresh tyre advantage at the end, Tsunoda evidently had far more confidence, stemming from the seemingly more consistent car and power unit. That level of confidence is very impressive for such a young debutant.

Have we seen the formation of F1.6?

What makes this result even more intriguing were the incidents around Yuki Tsunoda. Fernando Alonso retired after a sandwich wrapper going for an expedition ended up in his brakes and Ocon and Vettel broke the Covid Protocols by not respecting a 6 feet gap and then making contact. On the lap-by-lap analysis, Yuki Tsunoda was consistently posting similar and sometimes faster lap times, perhaps a sign that the AlphaTauri was a more well-rounded package at Bahrain. However, that could change as we visit circuits with different characteristics.

Adding another layer to this chaotic, yet outstanding midfield battle are the performances of McLaren and Ferrari. In Bahrain, positions P4 to P8 were occupied by the ever consistent McLaren and a rejuvenated Ferrari, with Sergio Perez’s unusual race seeing him slot right in the middle. When comparing the performances of these two teams with AlphaTauri, one can spot a consistent gap in performance – with all variables such as Daniel Ricciardo’s broken floor removed, it would be hard to look beyond McLaren as the favourites for P3; Bahrain was just an exhibition for how far they have come along. With development limited throughout the season, don’t be surprised to see them have more such lonely races.

That leaves us with Ferrari, who have found a fresh spark but were only slightly faster than AlphaTauri on average in Bahrain. Where can one apportion that difference to? Were Ferrari’s more experienced and on paper, more potent drivers the true difference makers? If so, just how close will this battle be as Yuki evolves? Will we have a fatal-four-way for fourth position this season?

Should you feel bullish about AlphaTauri?

Formula One is unique in the way that the engineers have immense control in attempting to nullify all variables through their technical might. They may all be largely on a similar level in terms of the cars, strategy and drivers yet it is what happens when the moment arrives that makes the difference.

In Bahrain, Tsunoda made the best use of the moment among the three-way fight of AlphaTauri, Aston Martin and Alpine, but wasn’t quick enough to close up to Ferrari. On the other hand, Gasly, who one may call the more dependable driver for now, seems to be right up there in qualifying pace against the Ferraris and McLarens, but was hampered by a variable that defines racing; wheel-to-wheel contact. Asking where he would have finished otherwise is a question we should see answered in the coming months.

The captivating story of whether Ferrari and McLaren are in a group of their own or if we have a four-way fight excluding McLaren for P4 is what should help the broadcasters earn better advertising deals. The fact that these variables exist makes the sport so engaging.

Now, the next few races should offer greater context about how defining of a variable will Pierre Gasly be this season.

With a revamped car and two flourishing drivers, AlphaTauri appear to be a formidable midfield force. The question is, who really are their long term competitors for this season – are they punching above their weight by fighting McLaren and Ferrari, or have they found solace with Aston Martin and Alpine? 

Read More:

If AlphaTauri were a stock, would you buy, hold or sell? 

Bold predictions for the 2021 F1 Season

Mercedes AMG F1: A management masterclass