Bayer on AlphaTauri and Red Bull '24 collaboration: 'Should be an F1 team'

AlphaTauri have struggled to find pace throughout this Formula 1 season, but updates are coming for the Italian team. AlphaTauri boss Peter Bayer talks about the team's current situation and its collaboration with Red Bull Racing, who are currently head and shoulders above the other teams.

"With the cost cap and the technical regulations, you almost can’t be like a sister or brother team – you have to be a Formula 1 team," the AlphaTauri CEO told PlanetF1.com. "We need to grow through that process of growing up, going through adolescence, and start walking on our own feet, but obviously not in contradiction with getting support from our family. I think that’s really what we’re also supposed to achieve. That’s what we want to achieve. We can still exploit the technical collaboration because we haven’t done that in the past," Bayer continued.

Despite the upcoming AlphaTauri upgrade delivering "no quick improvements", we also saw McLaren jump up towards the podium thanks to their upgrades this season. Bayer thinks he sees the reason: "I think that’s really down to the fact that they all understood that what Red Bull Racing did in terms of design philosophy is the right one with this new downforce element which everybody is following," Bayer explains.

The AlphaTauri has been anything but good this season. Due to underperformance, Nyck de Vries was already sent packing earlier this season. Then, his replacement, Daniel Ricciardo, was injured during the weekend with Formula 1 in the Netherlands, leaving Liam Lawson now driving alongside Yuki Tsunoda.