AlphaTauri gets another Red Bull talent: 'That remains our goal'

AlphaTauri have presented their new car for 2021 and are gearing up for a better season than in 2020. With Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly, the team certainly has a line-up to savour.

On Friday morning AlphaTauri presented the new AT02 for the coming season. At the presentation of course the new drivers were also present: Gasly and Tsunoda. Franz Tost is very happy with his new line-up for 2021 and expects a lot from both drivers. A step forward needs to be made after the successful year in 2020.

The driver duo of AlphaTauri

''For this season we are running an interesting driver pairing. We have an experienced driver and a rookie. I reckon Pierre is one of the strongest drivers in F1 nowadays. Pierre’s good technical understanding allows him to get the best out of the car. Pierre has been with the team for some time now, so he is familiar with all procedures and with our way of working, he will be a good leader, helping Yuki in his development,'' said Tost on the AlphaTauri website.

''Then, we have Yuki, who finished third in the F2 Championship and watching his races last year in F2 I must say he did a fantastic job, winning races and carrying out many impressive overtaking manoeuvres. Yuki has already completed some tests with us in an F1 car and I’m convinced that he will have a successful start in his F1 career, due to his natural speed and his talent.''

Talent from Red Bull

AlphaTauri thus gains another talent from the Red Bull programme, after that flow of talent had stopped for a while. With Brendon Hartley and Alexander Albon, two drivers were brought in who had actually already been rejected by Red Bull, so we have to go back to Pierre Gasly for the latest promotion.

"The decision to go for Pierre and Yuki in 2021 was taken because Scuderia AlphaTauri’s philosophy is still to give talented young drivers from the Red Bull Junior Programme the opportunity to step up to F1 and to educate them – this is why Yuki now gets his chance. With Pierre on Yuki’s side we have an experienced driver, who can help our Japanese rookie to develop faster, but at the same time we can aim for good results. I think this pair is the best possible scenario to achieve both our targets and I’m also confident this will be a successful one'', concludes the Austrian.