While McLaren, Ferrari and Haas arrived in Barcelona to complete their first track outing before the official start of pre-season testing, AlphaTauri remained in Italy. The transalpine team tested its new car, the AT03, for the first time during a filming day organized at the Misano circuit, located not far from the team’s factory.
In this way, Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda completed this Tuesday, February 22, about 100 kilometers at the wheel of the new AT03 , the maximum allowed by the regulations for a shakedown.
Being forced to fit demo tires and taking into account that the circuit was wet, the drivers were unable to test the limits of grip offered by the new ground effect Formula 1 single-seaters.
“The new car is very different and I must say that the first feeling behind the wheel was quite good, even though the track was wet and therefore slippery,” said Gasly .
“I really hope that this new generation of cars will improve racing, which would be great for us drivers. Everything is new, with a lot to discover. So we will go to Barcelona, where we will have a lot of work to do,” he added.
“On a shooting day, the kilometers traveled by the car are very limited, but from what I have found out so far, I have a good feeling with the AT03 ,” said Tsunoda . “Now I want to use the first few days of testing to build my confidence with the car, learn as much as possible and give the engineers the best possible feedback.”
After this short test, AlphaTauri will head to Spain, where from Wednesday to Friday the first three pre-season test sessions in 2022 will take place. After that, all the teams will travel to Bahrain to play three more days of tests, from March 10 to 12, a week before the first grand prix of the season at the same Sakhir circuit.
