AlphaTauri is in the top half of the championship after the opening two rounds, as it chases its highest finish in the team’s 36-year history, but it has yet to capitalise on the potential of the Honda-powered AT02.
AlphaTauri impressed during pre-season testing, even if Yuki Tsunoda’s eye-catching time was flattered by additional DRS usage, but so far when it matters the team has not grabbed its opportunities.
Pierre Gasly has secured back-to-back P5s on the grid but that has been converted into only six points on his side of the garage.
Such was AlphaTauri’s confidence in Bahrain that Gasly progressed through Q2 on Medium tyres but starting on that compound left him susceptible to the Soft-shod McLaren drivers early on, and he duly lost his front wing after tagging Daniel Ricciardo.
At Imola his third-row starting place was squandered when the decision to start on Full Wet tyres proved incorrect, while the damage was accentuated by AlphaTauri opting to keep him out for a prolonged period.
Gasly recovered to eighth, which later became seventh owing to Lance Stroll’s time drop, but it was another missed chance.
Over on Tsunoda’s side of the garage he stole the show with his daring moves in Bahrain but these were a consequence of dropping out of Q2, when the decision to try Mediums backfired, as well as a timid opening lap.
At Imola, where he completed substantial running during private test days, he had what should be termed a rookie weekend. Tsunoda crashed on his first flying lap in Q1, conceding he got too excited, and followed it up with a scrappy race. Points were still a possibility until a naïve attempt at passing Lewis Hamilton at the restart left him facing the wrong way, in the gravel, and out of contention.
Its haul of eight points is not too shabby but considering the pure pace of the AT02 there should be more breathing space between it and Aston Martin and Alpine in the standings.
“Looking back at the last round in Imola, there are some positives to take away from what was a disappointing weekend in terms of the result,” said Gasly.
“We were in the top 10 for all free practice sessions and were again in the top five in qualifying – three and a half tenths off the pole time – which must be one of the best qualifying times for the team.
“Seventh in the race is still a good result, even if we know we should have done better. We’ll discuss it as a team and see how we can make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“The key now is to ensure we capitalise on our good qualis to chase a bigger points score.”
For Tsunoda the Emilia Romagna event provided a plethora of takeaways that he hopes to apply at this weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix.
“I learned a lot of lessons in Imola,” he said. “It was quite the opposite to Bahrain which had gone well. I had very high expectations for Imola and so had the team.
“Everything had gone smoothly in free practice but then I made a huge mistake in qualifying, which meant I had a very tough race. I had not had a bad crash for two years, so this was a lesson which I can learn from going into the next races.
“The race was also the first time I had driven a Formula 1 car in the wet and using the intermediate tyres was really tricky, so I had to build up my speed gradually.
“But we have a car that has been competitive at the first two tracks, capable of running in the top six.”
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