Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, 2022

AlphaTauri to use fewer Red Bull-designed parts in 2023 car

RaceFans Round-up

Posted on

| Written by

In the round-up: AlphaTauri will be buying fewer parts designed by Red Bull for their 2023 car than they did for this year’s car, says the team’s head of trackside engineering, Jonathan Eddolls.

Join RaceFans on Facebook

Don't miss anything from RaceFans - join us on Facebook here to see whenever a new article has been added:

In brief

AlphaTauri to use fewer Red Bull-designed parts in 2023 car

AlphaTauri will be buying fewer parts designed by Red Bull for their 2023 car than they did for this year’s car, says the team’s head of trackside engineering, Jonathan Eddolls.

While all teams must design and build their own monocoque, nose cone, wings, wheel drums and more, they are permitted under F1 regulations to purchase a limited amount of parts from other teams (transferable components). Many smaller teams make use of this, with Haas purchasing many parts from power unit suppliers Ferrari and Red Bull-owned AlphaTauri buying parts from senior team Red Bull Racing.

Eddolls says that while AlphaTauri will continue to purchase parts designed by Red Bull in next year’s car, they will not be as many as used this season.

“We’re designing a few more parts for ourselves, actually, for next year,” Eddolls told media including RaceFans. “Just because the way Red Bull work, their lead times and their production capabilities is phenomenal. They can leave everything right up to the last minute – which is fantastic.

“However, for us, obviously we want to develop our aerodynamics around certain aspects that we lock in now. So, for example, to take some of their components that we only find out the final design very late in the year, could influence our aero because we’ve developed them around a different geometry.

“Obviously for next year, having the benefit of having run the cars now and knowing the operating window, you can save weight, there’s various things that you can do because we know more about how these cars, these tyres and these regulations will work.”

Johnson to make part-time NASCAR racing return

Seven-time NASCAR Cup champion and IndyCar racer Jimmie Johnson will return to part-time NASCAR Cup competition in 2023 after buying a stake in the Petty GMS team.

Johnson, who won seven cup championships between 2006 and 2016, has raced in IndyCar over the last two seasons with Chip Ganassi, competing in 29 races and recording a best finish of fifth in the second Iowa race this season. Having purchased a minority ownership stake in the team, Johnson will race in next year’s Daytona 500 and select other races, following his retirement from full-time racing after this year’s IndyCar season.

Saucy staying with ART for second F3 season

FIA Formula 3 driver Gregoire Saucy will compete in a second season in the championship in 2023 and remain at ART, entering into a fourth year of single-seater competition with the team.

The 22-year-old moved into FIA F3 this year after claiming the 2021 Formula Regional European Championship. In his first season in the category, Saucy finished 15th in the drivers’ championship on 30 points. His best result came in the first feature race of the season in Bahrain where he finished third, his single podium of the campaign.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

@mlee211

Replying to @yaboyholy

♬ original sound – Michael Lee

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Comment of the day

With drivers expressing concerns over fans not respecting their personal boundaries in the Mexico City paddock last weekend, @dbradock recalls getting up close and personal with the heroes of Formula 1 when the Australian Grand Prix began in the eighties…

I remember the first race in Adelaide.

Back then drivers could wander around without a team of minders checking their every word. I got to say hello to people like Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Alan Jones in the middle of Rundle mall while they were just out taking in the window displays. They didn’t shy away, there wasn’t a pile of people with phones in hand trying to invade their space to take selfies, just a few having respectful conversations.

Fans these days seem to think it’s their right to just grab a celebrity, or in this case a driver, and stick their phones in their faces without even so much as a please or thank you.

I agree with Ricciardo – there needs to be some guidelines. There shouldn’t be a need but that’s an unfortunate fact of life these days.

Sadly though, I wouldn’t expect a fair number of fans to obey them though, and we’ll soon see drivers and team members needing to be escorted by security as well as their media minders.
DB-C90

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Adam Dennehey, Amadis, Somersetracefan, Sonia Luff and Giggsy11!

On this day in motorsport

  • Born today in 1905: Louis Rosier, who lined up ninth on the grid for the first world championship race at Silverstone in 1950

Author information

Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

6 comments on “AlphaTauri to use fewer Red Bull-designed parts in 2023 car”

  1. @dbradock

    …with phones in hand trying to invade their space to take selfies…

    To be fair, mobile phones didn’t exist back then (except maybe for Wall Street types).

    But on the whole I agree with your sentiment: modern fans seem to lack respect.

    1. Didn’t the Beatles stop touring for similar reasons – some two decades earlier?

      There’s bound to be some form of motorsport in your area where only the dedicated go.

  2. Might that also be to free up budget at the RB camp?

    Apparently they have more sandwiches and sick leave to fund.

  3. A wise move for them & on a related note, I didn’t know an AT cloth store is in London (apparently on Brompton Road, in Knightsbridge). I’ll go & check the next time I’m in London.

    Re James Price’s tweet: Risky itself, but less risky than with open-wheelers & the extra vehicle is merely a mid-sized truck car rather than a JCB or any other similar vehicle type.

    COTD demonstrates how much things have changed in F1 paddocks since the 1980s & unfortunately negatively to an extent.

    1. Jamey wanted to trend on twitter but he does not want to pay for the blue tick.
      Jamey at least go watch bsb and see if there is any difference.

  4. One of the comments from Eddolls was particularly interesting …
    “Just because the way Red Bull work, their lead times and their production capabilities is phenomenal. They can leave everything right up to the last minute – which is fantastic.”
    If the world of budget caps, one of the accounting items that RedBull got caught out on was the disposition of a bunch of spare parts. Unless you are Haas, you can probably get by with a reasonably lean inventory of spares. If you can, as the above indicates, produce them quickly, you can minimize inventory and hence reduce costs. An even greater benefit if your development renders new/old parts obsolete.
    Just one more benefit to engaging drivers that don’t smash up cars very often. I suppose this parts availability concept could be called …. “In the Mick of time, production.”

Comments are closed.