AlphaTauri drivers encouraged by new floor in last-gasp bid for seventh

AlphaTauri drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda were encouraged by the performance of a new floor their team introduced for the final round of the season.

The team which sits in eighth in the constructors’ championship are pushing until the last possible round in their efforts to try and snatch seventh from rivals Williams.

AlphaTauri need their best result of the season so far to stand a chance of overhauling Williams. They must score at least seven points more than theirrivals during Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which will likely require the team to either finish at least sixth with either Ricciardo or Tsunoda, or have both drivers finish in the top eight with Williams failing not scoring.

As part of their efforts to fight for seventh in this last round, AlphaTauri have introduced a new floor to their AT04. They are one of only three teams to bring any upgrades to the season finale.

AlphaTauri have focused all their attention on the car’s floor – a crucial element of car performance under the revised regulations introduced last year. Detail on the design submitted by the team to the FIA outline that the floor body, fences and edge have all been modified on both cars.

The team say the mid-floor and ‘canoe’ surfaces around the plank have been “extensively” modified to help generate more load, along with the floor edge wing, while the fences are designed to improve the quality of airflow into these edges.

The initial signs appeared to be positive in Friday’s practice sessions. AlphaTauri was the only team with the privilege of running both their race drivers in both sessions on Friday, with Ricciardo third-fastest in the opening session. He and team mate Tsunoda finished the disrupted second session in 12th and 15th respectively.

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“It was positive,” was Ricciardo’s assessment after practice. “I’m not too concerned with 12th – I think we are better than that.

“I think we found definitely some positives from the car. So it’s just now trying to fine-tune it. It’s kind of shifted a few things around, so just trying to put it all together.”

Team mate Tsunoda described his early impressions of the team’s floor upgrades as “good”, but admitted he has some handling inconsistencies.

“It seems definitely our performance is going a step forward, but at the same time, slightly more difficult to handle it,” he said. “So just different behaviour, I feel. We just have to put it all together as a balance. But I think it’s a positive day.”

Asked whether he would prefer more understeer or oversteer, Tsunoda said: “whatever the car is faster, I’ll take it any way.”

Team principal Franz Tost, who is stepping down following this weekend’s race after 18 seasons leading Red Bull’s junior F1 team, says the performance of the car’s floor was the one thing he was looking forward to more from his final weekend.

“I hope that the floor works,” he said. “That’s the only thing that’s interesting for me, the floor and the diffuser.

“I hope that we perform well, because another target is to finish on the seventh position in the constructors’ championship and that’s the only thing that’s interesting.”

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