Pierre Gasly says he expects a “season full of surprises” as his Alpha Tauri team launched their 2022 car.
The Frenchman, who won the 2020 Italian Grand Prix, is joined again by Japanese Yuki Tsunoda and has high hopes for Red Bull’s second team.
Gasly said: “I hope this is a year when I can fight at the very front, to finish regularly in the top five and even higher if the car is good enough.
“The team are quite pleased with the work they have done.”
The new Alpha Tauri was unveiled at an online-only launch, with no opportunities for the media to ask questions.
Gasly’s remarks, and those of all other senior figures, were published in a team statement.
The new car was released only in the form of digital renders, which are unlikely to represent accurately how it will appear at pre-season testing next week or at the start of the season next month.
It has a similar blue and white colour scheme to last year, with slight revisions.
The car has been designed to meet F1’s all-new technical regulations, which completely redefine how a grand prix car works with the aim of closing up the field and making the racing more exciting.
There are also new, larger, lower-profile, more durable tyres fitted to bigger wheels of 18 inches in diameter rather than 13.
The images released by Alpha Tauri show very squared off side-pod openings and narrow rear bodywork sweeping heavily downwards in a similar fashion to the McLaren revealed last week, with a view to maximising downforce at the rear.
Gasly, who finished ninth in the championship last year with a best result of third place in Azerbaijan, said: “Aesthetically (the rules are) a big change. It also makes the cars heavier and affects the way they drive, and I think it adds yet another element and challenge on top of all the other changes to the cars. They also slightly reduce visibility from the cockpit, especially with those new (front) wheel covers.”
Tsunoda, who is heading into this second year in F1 after an up-and-down rookie season, said: “I feel I have a much better understanding of what I have to do than I did a year ago. I know how to prepare in order to perform well.
“I know what my weak points are, I have all of my experience from last year to build on and I have been working hard to be ready.
“Last year if anything unexpected or unusual happened I could not adapt quickly enough to deal with the situation, which is why I struggled in a lot of races.
“I ended last year well, with a fourth place in Abu Dhabi, so I want to carry that momentum into this new season. I feel more pressure to perform now than I did last year, but it’s a good pressure, which is motivation for me when I’m training.”
Both drivers have tried the new car virtually in Alpha Tauri’s simulator and Tsunoda said it has considerable differences from last year.
“The downforce level is lower than last year and I could feel that through some corners,” he said. “The car generally feels a lot sharper, with sharper movement and over a long run. The bigger wheels give you a completely different feeling to that on the old 13-inch tyres.”
F1’s budget cap has been lowered by $5m (£3.7m) to $140m (£103.5m) this year but team boss Franz Tost said he expects the traditional top teams still to have an advantage.
Tost said: “It should make a difference, but as the big teams were able to benefit from a larger number of people until summer last year, they of course had an advantage. They were able to do a lot more research and development work.
“Therefore it could be the case that the top teams will still have an advantage, but the gap between the top teams and the rest of the field should be smaller and all of the cars are expected to be much closer together.
“With this new era of cars, we should have more action on track and a more compact field, which translates into more fun for the spectators.
“Last year, the cost cap was absolutely of no concern for us, as we operated at a level far below it, but it seems that these completely new cars are much more expensive than those from previous years.
“This will make it hard for all the teams to stay within the limits but that will help to bring the cars closer together in performance terms and I think that’s very positive.”
