AlphaTauri launch event, 2020

AlphaTauri to launch 2021 F1 car on February 19th

2021 F1 season

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AlphaTauri will present their new car for the 2021 F1 season on February 19th.

They are currently set to be the second team to present their new contender, following McLaren’s launch four days earlier. AlphaTauri, which was known as Toro Rosso until last year, have named their new car the AT02.

Pierre Gasly, who scored a shock victory for the team in last year’s Italian Grand Prix, will continue to drive for the team which he has raced for in every season since making his F1 debut in 2017. He will be joined by a newcomer to the series, Yuki Tsunoda, who was the top-scoring rookie in Formula 2 last year.

Gasly’s victory helped AlphaTauri to seventh place in the constructors championship last year with 107 points. This was the highest total ever scored by the team which first entered F1 as Minardi in 1985.

Honda will power the team for the fourth year in a row. However the Japanese manufacturer is due to leave Formula 1 at the end of the season.

2021 Formula 1 car launches confirmed so far

  • February 15th: McLaren M35M
  • February 19th: AlphaTauri AT02
  • February 22nd: Alfa Romeo C41
  • March 3rd: Mercedes W12

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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5 comments on “AlphaTauri to launch 2021 F1 car on February 19th”

  1. Would like to see an altered livery, but not holding my breath. I find this one a bit dull. The grid could do with more colour now we’re losing pink. The Toro Rosso Mk2 livery was one of the best F1 has seen.

    1. @cduk_mugello I Googled Toro Rosso MK2 but couldn’t find anything directly relating to your reference. I quite like the present predominantly white livery. Nevertheless, more variation in car colors on the grid wouldn’t be for the bad.

      1. @jerejj I meant the second livery they had. As in their first one ran from 2006 – 2016 and gradually become more stale (but the earlier versions were nice). The second iteration was the 2017-19 wonderful mettalic blue car. Very pretty. Always been partial to a mettalic blue car – the 2001 Prost was seriously good.. at least to look at!

  2. Just seems odd that Franz Tost didn’t keep thinking this despite Kvyat and Gasly improving:

    “Kvyat and Gasly is our best driver line-up ever”

    https://www.racefans.net/2020/02/23/racefans-round-up-23-02-3/

    Although, when he was kicked out before, Marko “confirmed” that he “won’t return”. How true was that? Not very.

    Maybe Kvyat will be back someday when they next kick out a driver!

    1. @thegianthogweed This time, he’s permanently out. Red Bull isn’t in the same situation they were when they asked if he wanted to return. They wouldn’t have asked him, nor Albon (who they had dropped from the program back in 2012), nor Hartley (axed in 2010) had they not been out of super license-eligible (or close-to-be) academy drivers for a little while. Tsunoda, of course, got promoted to F1 for this year. At present, they’ve got Vips, Daruvala, and Lawson in F2. The former already holds a super license, so he merely needs to do well to more or less guarantee promotion to an F1 race drive for 2022. The other two are also candidates if they become eligible for SL by finishing in the top five (DAR) and top nine (LAW), in which case, they’d also be candidates for a 2022 Alpha Tauri drive alongside Tsunoda. To put it simply, no room for has-beens anymore. For Kvyat and Albon, becoming a race driver again would more likely have to happen in a team other than the two Red Bull-owned ones. For Gasly, realistically, Red Bull Racing or a team outside the Red Bull stable (Alpine, for example) for 2022.

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