Alpha Tauri went through four drivers, gathered 25 points and ended the season 8th in the Constructors. A season of changes, underperformance and the end of an era.
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New Drivers
Alpha Tauri started the season with the returning Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck de Vries, the latter securing his seat off the back of a great one-off race the season before. The Dutchman stood in for Alex Albon after the Williams driver fell ill with appendicitis.
de Vries was called up at the last minute and managed to finish in ninth place, securing Williams two points and putting himself in the shop window.
Nyck signs for the Bulls
As the remaining 2022 season continued, speculation grew around where would de Vries end up. Logic would dictate that he would take over from Latifi at Williams, however Red Bull stepped in to take the former Formula E Champion to Alpha Tauri.
Red Bull’s hand seemed to have been forced after their pursuit of Indycar driver Colton Herta ended due to the America not having the required super licence points.
Red Bull parted ways with de Vries after the British GP, the Dutchman’s highest finish was 12th at the Monaco GP, Helmut Marko stated that “Nyck de Vries did not live up to our expectations” which was pretty clear for all to see.
The Return of the Honey Badger
The decision to release Nyck de Vries allowed for the return of Daniel Ricciardo. He had returned to Red Bull as a test driver after 2 difficult years at McLaren.
With much fanfare and excitement around Formula 1, Danny Ric was announced as Alpha Tauri’s new driver. It was clear that Redbull/Alpha Tauri needed a safe pair of hands.
Danny’s return was underwhelming to say the least. In his first two races he finished 13th and 16th before breaking his hand at the Dutch GP. The Australian would not return to racing until the US GP in Texas.
Danny would finish the season with 6 points from 7 races and 11 points behind the improving Tsunoda, who finished 14th in the Championship.
Super Sub
With Danny Ricciardo out for 5 races with a broken hand, Redbull brought in New Zealander, Liam Lawson. His first race was the Dutch GP, where he was a last minute sub, he would finish an impressive thirteenth. Liam would continue to impress taking his debut Formula 1 points at the Singapore GP when he crossed the line in ninth.
Lawson would step back from the US GP, however we will be happy with his showing over the previous 5 GP.
End of an Era
The 2023 season is the end of an era for Alpha Tauri for a couple of reasons. Team Principal,Franz Tost announced that he was leaving Alpha Tauri at the end of the season. Tost has been replaced by Laurent Mekies from Ferrari.
Another big change from 2024 is the team name. Red Bull admitted that the marketing decision to change from Toro Rosso to Alpha Tauri (Red Bull’s clothing brand) had not worked. Red Bull are yet to announce the new name of the team, worryingly Red Bull have recently trademarked “Racing Bulls” …..
The 2023 season was a very disappointing season. Alpha Tauri are usually a team that “over perform” the team and the drivers failed to deliver.
Daniel Ricciardo did not beat Yuki Tsunoda. A result which was not in the script and must be very disappointing for the Australian.
Yuki Tsunoda seemed to improve over the course of the season. However, Tsunoda just doesn’t seem to have made that step in his performance that we were expecting.
Both Ricciardo and Tsunoda have a tricky 2024 coming up. If either of them underperform it could be the end of their F1 careers.
Alpha Tauri will be exciting to watch in 2024 for many reasons.
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