AlphaTauri drivers impressed with new AT03 after F1 pre-season testing

AlphaTauri drivers Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda are both happy with how the team’s new car, the AT03, has run in Formula 1‘s pre-season.

Red Bull‘s sister team managed to put up a respectable 308 laps during the three-day testing session at Barcelona.

And Gasly, who was the pick of the AlphaTauri drivers last season, is ecstatic with the team’s new car. He admitted he felt confident driving the car as it’s responded well to his style of driving.

“I must say I was super excited, especially with this new car, just to understand a bit more how it works and have a sort of idea how my feelings will be inside this new car.

“And it’s been really good, it’s been really positive straight out of the box; I felt quite confident inside the car and it kind of responded the way I wanted.

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“Obviously there’s still a lot of things to work on, but it was a pleasing start. Unfortunately, I locked up my tyres during the morning running and damaged the car.

“But testing is about finding the limits and we’ve still been able to gather a lot of valuable data over the three days.

“This is of course only the first test, and we have a lot to analyse before the three more days of testing in Bahrain.”

AlphaTauri driver Tsunoda admits ‘driving style needs changing’

On the other side of the paddock, Tsunoda was also impressed with the new car. However, the Japanese driver admitted he needs to change his driving style ever so slightly.

“It’s been a good three days of testing here in Barcelona. It’s been really productive, and we’ve learnt a lot about the new car.

“I’ve been really excited to get back driving since Abu Dhabi, especially knowing that it’s a whole new car, and I’ve really enjoyed my time getting to know the AT03.

“There’s still a lot to do ahead of the next test in Bahrain. From my side, I need to make some more adaptions to my driving style to suit this new car. But overall it’s been a really positive test.

“We’ve still got three days in Bahrain before the first race. So we need to prepare as much as possible ahead of this so that we can start the season off well.”

The second round of pre-season testing gets underway at Bahrain from March 10-12. The 2022 season will get underway a week later.