UNITED STATES: AlphaTauri has launched its 2023 Formula One season by unveiling its livery for the upcoming AT04 challenger during a special event in New York.
Long-time team boss Franz Tost, current driver Yuki Tsunoda, and Nyck de Vries, who will debut for the team as a full-time driver, were all present at the reveal.
AlphaTauri’s launch event followed Red Bull’s season launch in the Big Apple a week earlier.
The livery launch event was a perfect fit for AlphaTauri’s fashion brand, coinciding with New York’s famous Fashion Week.
AlphaTauri is owned by Red Bull, which replaced Toro Rosso as the Faenza-based team’s official name in 2020.
The team presented its all-new 2023 F1 challenger, which is powered by Honda engines and currently runs under the Red Bull Powertrains branding, in a deep blue and white colour scheme with red highlights.
The red accents come from the team’s new “principal partner,” Polish oil refiner and petrol retailer ORLEN, which moved across from rival Alfa Romeo.
AlphaTauri heads into the new season looking to turn around its recent fortunes in Formula 1. AlphaTauri slipped from sixth in the 2021 constructors’ standings to ninth in 2022 after the new technical regulations came into effect.
Japanese F1 driver Yuki Tsunoda keeps his place in the team for a third successive season, with Nyck de Vries replacing Pierre Gasly, who is headed to Alpine after the Dutchman impressed the F1 paddock with a brilliant stand-in performance for Williams at the Italian Grand Prix last year.
At the launch of AlphaTauri’s new livery, Franz Tost commented that the whole grid will be much closer.
However, he added that the top three teams have an advantage from an infrastructure and personnel point of view.
With the AT04’s livery launched, half of Formula 1’s ten teams have revealed their colours ahead of the new season.
AlphaTauri will run the AT04 at the Bahrain International Circuit for pre-season testing from February 23–25, with the opening round of the 2023 F1 season following a week later at the same venue.
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