AlphaTauri AT02, 2021

First pictures: AlphaTauri presents its new AT02 for the 2021 F1 season

2021 F1 season

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AlphaTauri has become the second team to reveal its new look for the 2021 F1 season.

The AT02 is the second Formula 1 car produced by the team, previously known as Toro Rosso, since its rebranding. AlphaTauri has revealed renderings of its new car and pictures of its updated livery applied to last year’s AT01.

“I am convinced that the car will be one of the most beautiful on the starting-grid and a beautiful car normally is also fast,” said team principal Franz Tost.

For the fourth year in a row the team is using Honda power units. The Japanese engine manufacturer is to leave Formula 1 at the end of the season but AlphaTauri will continue to use its engines next year.

There is one new face in their driver line-up. Pierre Gasly, who joined the team in 2017 and scored a shock victory in last year’s Italian Grand Prix, remains. His former team mate Daniil Kvyat has been replaced by rookie Yuki Tsunoda, 20, who will be the youngest driver on the grid this year.

Gasly scored the majority of the team’s points last year on its way to seventh place in the constructors championship.

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Pictures: 2021 AlphaTauri F1 launch

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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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47 comments on “First pictures: AlphaTauri presents its new AT02 for the 2021 F1 season”

  1. I’ll get used to it, I suppose. I really liked the two tone last year, this has a bit too much of the blue stuff for my tastes. Probably still gonna be the best looking livery on the grid alongside Red Bull’s.

    1. Yes something like that @aiii

      Good thing we don’t watch in black and white/greytone any more though, with the division and the stripe, I’d wonder about distinguishing this from Alfa Romeo! (name, style, logo on hood, huh ok).

      Hm, a pinstripe that makes a saggy detour on a racing car, not sure that works for me. I mean, it starts down the sidepod to follow it’s shape I guess, but then it just goes UP again? Sort of showing how air goes? Still looks like a blockage there …

      So, a livery. A bit more change than for McLaren, but not quite sure it’s an improvement or not.

      1. Oh, I do really like those white rims. Fit in so well it didn’t initially register :)

  2. Screams back to the parmalat brabham.

    1. But not as iconic.

    2. thanks… I knew it was something familiar, italian…
      I like it :)

  3. Oof. Why mess with perfection? I mean it probably won’t be the worst looking livery this year, but it certainly won’t be the best like last year’s.

    1. I agree. Why can’t they take a leaf out of Red Bull’s book?: Stick to one livery, and don’t change the overal look and feel. The Red Bull Livery has become iconic, a graphic marvel with lots of clever details.

  4. Gone from the best livery on the grid to probably, what will be the worst. Awful!

    1. Just hang on there John. I’m guessing some of the other teams are doing their best to take that title ;)

  5. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess, I think it looks amazing.

      1. Yes. I really like it. I quite liked the 2020 version but this is an improvement in my eyes.

    1. petebaldwin (@)
      19th February 2021, 14:28

      I preferred the 2020 car to this one but I think this looks great as well

    2. That darker blue somehow reminds me about Minardi

    3. I agree I think it looks better than last year’s livery.

  6. I also like it. Last year’s was better, but I’m glad when teams take a gamble and change their colour scheme in subsequent years, while still maintaining brand colours. Even if it is not as good, we get variety (I’m looking at you McLaren!)

    1. Although come to think of it… the amount of dark blue teams is getting a bit too much now!

  7. Dark blue and white traded places or sort of. I prefer last year’s predominantly white livery, but this one is also decent. I like the greater presence of the Honda text on the car, and I’m referring to the rear wing.

  8. Love this, I think the increased blue makes it more definitive than last year’s car. Look a bit Williams but still really like it. Glad they adapted the livery rather than keeping the same one. Good job.

  9. Better than last yeah IMHO

  10. I don’t know why but I love it. It have some retro-ish vibe with those white wheels and that dull dark-blue colour. It reminds me of something. Maybe 80’s rally car? I can’t put my finger on it.

  11. What I’m most surprised about is the bargeboards are now white. I thought teams left them carbon fibre black because it help hide the finer details of the geometry from cameras and prying eyes.

    1. Yeah, I’m sure the 10.000 dollars worth of camera’s the teams use have a real hard time with those :D

  12. I like this a lot. I liked last year’s livery a lot but thought there was too much white and wanted more blue, so this is pretty much perfect.

  13. Anyone else see an inverted Williams 2010-2012 era livery?

    1. Stevan Vasiljević
      20th February 2021, 10:18

      It indeed looks like pre-2014 Williams, with that color scheme.

  14. F1 fans are the moat critical in the best of times. Hahaha!

  15. My favorite part is the bold Honda lettering.
    What a mistake for Honda to leave now. When you beat a manufacturer like Mercedes people take notice.

    1. Yeah I’m shocked Honda is leaving now, especially with a Japanese driver at TR.

  16. Looks black on white to me.

    It’s a better balance of advertising too.

    Overall this car looks formidable

    Laughing about the black now, I thought there was another cultural movement going on. I initially thought this is a good looking Black Lives Matter entry.

    It’s still good looking even if they used black blue paint. Or wrap….

  17. Of the first two presentations the Alpha Torino seems the better of the two

  18. 22 eh? So no chance of Jenson Button making a comeback to take on the two World Champions before him!

  19. Urgh what have they done! That blue looks worse. The matte look of last year looked great, felt really modern. This with that awful pin stripe (why F1 whyyy?!) really makes it look dated and not in a good way whatsoever. Absolute step back.

    Again I never understand why they like using whispy little lines on F1 car liveries. Last years AT had a bold and modern design, this could have appeared in the early 2000’s easily.

  20. I still love that livery and think it could easily still be the best one on the grid *shrugs*

  21. It’s still very ugly, but is 0.1% less uglier than the 2020 livery…
    Who does this things…. monkeys?

  22. Dutchguy (@justarandomdutchguy)
    19th February 2021, 15:04

    What an ugly livery. It poorly fits the sidepods and rear and looks cheap overall

    1. Coventry Climax
      19th February 2021, 16:12

      I’m dutch too.
      I like the looks of this car very much.
      Don’t like the ‘new’ name though, Torro Rosso sounded much better.
      But then, my opinions are usually far from random.

  23. Better with Black wheels.

  24. Racecar is racecar backwards
    19th February 2021, 19:17

    I like it purely because it turns the convention of having the lower half of the car in black/carbon fibre on its head.

    1. I’m with you on that! Liveries should stand out, leaving the bottom half of the car black have become way too common. This is a nice change of trend, finally.

  25. I feel the renders don’t do the livery much justice. It looks fantastic in the real environment and I bet it will also look good on the racetrack. I think the last year’s livery was more unique and ellegant, but AT02 offers much smoother shapes and the blue front helped to make it slimmer.

  26. The clothes in the background are pretty cheesy.

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