AlphaTauri’s new AT02, revealed today, retains a significant part of the architecture of last year’s car but incorporates changes elsewhere, as this interactive comparison of the two shows.
The team has made the same aerodynamic changes as their rivals in order to comply with new rules to cut downforce for the 2021 F1 season.“With the changes to the aero regulations targeting a reduction in downforce, we have been presented with a number of changes we have got to make to the floor, the diffuser and rear brake ducts and this has required a lot of work to re-optimise around these changes,” explained technical director Jody Egginton.
The survival cell is the same as on the AT01, as are the gearbox and rear suspension. However the team has also used its development ‘tokens’ to upgrade the front end of the car.
“The work which has been undertaken to develop our car for 2021 goes far beyond compliance with regulation changes and has involved changes to nearly all aero surfaces and also development and repackaging large parts of the car, which are hidden, in order to achieve these changes,” said Egginton.
“We have spent a lot of time working to recover the aero losses as a result of the regulation changes, while also focusing on increasing and improving the car’s aerodynamic operating window.”
The changes to the front end involved incorporating some parts from Red Bull’s RB16, Egginton added.
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“It is difficult to tell you something about the performance of the car,” said Tost, “because if you ask the engineers now they tell you the car is very good, much faster than last year, but I don’t trust them, I just want to see it [in] the first lap times we have in Bahrain. After the Bahrain test I can tell you more.”
The other major change on the car is its upgraded Honda power unit, some details of which were revealed by the manufacturer today.
The end product is wrapped in a livery which is a slight reworking of the new design introduced last year when the team morphed from Toro Rosso into AlphaTauri, Red Bull’s fashion brand. Tost is at least confident the team will “have the most beautiful car on the starting grid” in 2021.
Use the sliders below to transition between images of the 2021 and 2020 AlphaTauri F1 cars.
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Front
Side
Top
Note these images may have been altered for ease of comparison and should not be used as a reference for measurements.
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2021 F1 season
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IVAYLO
19th February 2021, 10:26
The sidepods going further down is the only interesting thing about this interactive comparison.
Sonny Crockett (@sonnycrockett)
19th February 2021, 10:30
Shocking livery change!
Looks like some nonentity team.
Olivier
19th February 2021, 11:11
Ouch, last year’s livery looks way better. The 2021 livery certainly is a downgrade :( What has happened, why?
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
19th February 2021, 13:23
Disagree. Is the new nose already on the car? It is not an 2019 rb nose neither a 2020 rb nose, the cape is similar, guess it not the actual wing and nose cone that is rb’s
Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
19th February 2021, 16:25
Me too. I like it better than last year’s one. I believe the front will look vastly different when they turn up for testing in three weeks time. This is pretty much just a livery launch.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
19th February 2021, 22:35
Weirdly, I like this year better from the front and last year better from the side!
Broke1984 (@broke1984)
19th February 2021, 11:35
I wonder how many graphic designers they employ just to move the blue forward and the white back. I predict we’ll be confusing Williams and Tauri in long angle shots
Mikey
19th February 2021, 12:02
I love it. I love the fact it has white wheels which throws me back to the 94 Benetton, and the blue with the horizontal divide throws me back to both the colour of the parmalat brabham with the essence of the 97 arrows that hill drove. I really love it.
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
19th February 2021, 14:22
I think they have done a good job with the livery. I quite liked the 2020 version but I actually think this is an improvement. I like the white wheel rims.
F1oSaurus (@)
19th February 2021, 17:51
Did they just repaint the 2020 car or is there any actual change? Apart from the floor obviously.
All I see is that perhaps the sidepods run a bit wider towards the back.
PeterF
22nd February 2021, 10:08
The bargeboard area, sidepods and engine cover and the rear wing are noticably different
johnnyD
20th February 2021, 7:09
What’s “interactive” about this piece? It’s literally just still images!