alphatauri-at02-pierre-gasly-yuki-tsunoda-goodwood-19022021.jpg

1 / 7

Gallery: The AlphaTauri AT02 2021 F1 car

19th February 2021

Seán Ward

Meet the AlphaTauri AT02, the second 2021 F1 car to be revealed ahead of the new season, unveiled today in Salzburg, Austria, by the team’s drivers, Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda.

The AT02 uses the same AlphaTauri blue and white as the AT01 from 2020, but it’s the blue that now more dominant. There’s the Red Bull logo just behind the driver’s head, a reminder that this is still the Red Bull junior team, as it has been since 2006 when Red Bull bought Minardi to create Toro Rosso.

“In 2020 Scuderia AlphaTauri was a midfield team,” said team boss Franz Tost. “We were fighting successfully against the other teams like McLaren, Renault and Racing Point but our target for this year is to consistently be at the top of this midfield pack and to improve further.

"To achieve this, we have to avoid reliability issues and finish all races in the points. This can only happen if we do not make any mistakes, so we have to be 100 per cent concentrated on our job, race after race, on and off the track, because our competitors are hard to fight. We will do our best to provide a good show for all the F1 fans, who I hope to see back at the track filling the grandstands soon."

As for the drivers, Pierre Gasly remains for a consecutive year after a strong 2020. Having joined the F1 grid with the team at the end of the 2017 with Toro Rosso, Gasly was promoted to Red Bull for 2019 but, unable to get close enough to team-mate Max Verstappen, was dropped back down to the sister team half way through the year. Last season was the ultimate bounce back, with numerous top ten finishes and his maiden win at Monza.

The second AlphaTauri seat goes to F1 newcomer Yuki Tsunoda, following the departure of another former Red Bull driver Daniil Kvyat. The first F1 driver to be born this millennium, Tsunoda finished the 2020 F2 season, his rookie year, in third place, and has been completing numerous tests in older F1 machinery at Misano and Imola over the winter break.