Photo by Peter Fox/Getty Images
Drivers Nyck de Vries and Yuki Tsunoda complete the first day of F1 pre-season testing for AlphaTauri
The first day of pre-season testing for the 2023 Formula 1 season is in the books, and all ten teams are now debriefing after a long day at Bahrain International Circuit. The 2023 F1 season began much like the 2022 campaign ended, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen atop the classification, having posted the best lap of the day, as well as the most laps from any driver.
For Red Bull’s sister team, AlphaTauri, it was a “solid” first day, in their words.
In statements provided to the media, including SBNation, following the first day of testing AlphaTauri technical director Jody Egginton called the first day “solid,” and indicated that the team was happy with the progress shown over the first two sessions:
“It was a solid first day with no issues with the car and only a single red flag in the morning, allowing for the majority of the run programme to be completed. Yuki drove first, with the early part of the morning given over to running the sidepod rakes and conducting several related aero tests. The data gathered from this is an important part of the correlation process. Following these tests, Yuki moved on to work on a number of test items and some basic set-up work, before handing over to Nyck for the afternoon session. Nyck continued with the various test items, making good use of both the C2 & C3 tyre compounds to also gather some very useful tyre data in the afternoon. It’s early days and, as normal, there will be variations in fuel loads and run programmes across the teams, but overall, we are happy with what we have learnt today. It gives us a clear idea of what to focus on going forward and we aim to build on this throughout the next two days.”
The team’s two young drivers, Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck de Vries, shared that sentiment. Tsunoda, entering his third campaign in F1, thought the day was “smooth.” Tsunoda also highlighted the progress that AlphaTauri has made with their 2023 challenger, the AT04:
“Today went smooth as a team. We were able to achieve the targets that we had set out and I’m happy with how I felt in the car. Compared to last year’s AT03, I can feel the clear progress we’ve made. We have identified things that we will need to improve on to make the car better in terms of balance, but there is a lot of potential. I am excited to see how the car will progress over the next days of testing.”
His teammate, rookie de Vries, called the day “positive,” despite the fact that the teams had to deal with high temperatures on the track as well as strong winds:
“Today went smooth as a team. We were able to achieve the targets that we had set out and I’m happy with how I felt in the car. Compared to last year’s AT03, I can feel the clear progress we’ve made. We have identified things that we will need to improve on to make the car better in terms of balance, but there is a lot of potential. I am excited to see how the car will progress over the next days of testing.”
Tsunoda posted the 15th-fastest lap of the day, with de Vries clocking in at 13th:
Both de Vries and Tsunoda return to the track tomorrow, with Tsunoda taking the morning session as he did on Thursday, while de Vries will take the afternoon session.
