Franz Tost insists that he cannot be happy with how the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season unfolded for his Scuderia AlphaTauri team, with the Faenza-based outfit slipping to a lowly ninth place in the Constructors’ Championship.
After a strong 2021 season that saw them end the year sixth, hopes were high that Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda would continue their form in 2022 and perhaps even fight higher up the order than before.
However, AlphaTauri did not seem to get on top of the new aerodynamic regulations, and after scoring one hundred and forty-two points in 2021, they could only muster thirty-five in 2022, with a best finish of fifth coming courtesy of Gasly in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
They finished two points behind the Haas F1 Team in eighth, although they were still able to outscore Williams Racing, another team that endured a tough year in the first year of the new regulations.
Tost, the Team Principal at AlphaTauri, hopes that the engineers at Faenza will be able to rectify the problems they faced in 2022 with their AT03 in the design of the 2023 AT04, which will be driven by Tsunoda and new signing Nyck de Vries after Gasly’s departure to the BWT Alpine F1 Team.
“I cannot be happy with this season because we did not achieve our goals,” said Tost to GPFans.com. “We were simply not good enough in all the different areas.
“The car was not competitive enough, and therefore, it was difficult to score points, to be in front like we were last year a couple of times.
“I hope that our engineers understand what they have to do for next year’s car and that we will come back with a more competitive package.”