Since its creation in 2006, AlphaTauri – formerly Toro Rosso – has had the mission of being the gateway to Formula 1 for the drivers in the Red Bull young driver program. Since then, it has introduced talents such as Max Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel, Carlos Sainz, and Daniel Ricciardo to the top class. However, the choice of drivers now follows different patterns from the past.
In 2024, the lineup will be one of the most experienced ever: Ricciardo, who made his F1 debut in 2012; and Yuki Tsunoda, who will be entering his fourth year. Peter Bayer, the new CEO of AlphaTauri, explained the decision to the RacingNews365.com website:
“We see that it actually works. Yuki is no longer a junior, to be honest. But compared to Daniel, he is. We see the positive impact this has on both of them, we see how much Yuki learns from Daniel, we see how much we learn from Daniel in terms of car setup and even in terms of strategy, sometimes he would come up with an idea while he’s in the car. For us to be competitive, this is certainly the way to go.”
According to the executive, this is indeed a requirement: “It is a request from the shareholders to focus on competitiveness because competitiveness will also help us balance commercially and reduce their obvious injection into the team.”
