After a “positive” first day of pre-season testing at Bahrain International Circuit forward of the 2023 Formula 1 season, AlphaTauri put in a heavy workload on the second day. Drivers Yuki Tsunoda and rookie teammate Nyck de Vries mixed on Friday to finish 159 laps, the most from any staff in the course of the second day of testing.
And whereas pre-season lap occasions are all the time to be taken with a grain of salt, the rookie’s lap of 1:32.222 positioned him with the fourth-best time of the day when it drew to a detailed.
“It’s been another positive day, even though we had a red flag. The session was suspended, but we still managed to get through our programme,” mentioned de Vries after finishing his 74 laps, in a press release given to the media together with SBNation. “We were able to test quite a few things, so in terms of our day we are happy, and in terms of performance it is hard to say. We have one more day of testing tomorrow, so hopefully we can complete everything and put it all together for the race.”
While Tsunoda’s finest lap positioned him seventeenth out of the 17 drivers who took to the grid on Friday, he was nonetheless happy with the session. “This morning we achieved the most laps compared to the rest of the field, so it was a good session. This also allowed us to catch up on our programme, as we fell short on the number of laps we wanted to run yesterday. Today we mainly focused on long runs where we found some limitations, but at the same time, there are positives to take from the good data we gathered for the race, which we can continue to build on tomorrow,” Tsunoda said after the day was full. “Overall, I’m happy with my driving and feedback to the team, which is constantly improving. I will continue to work like this, and I’m excited to start working on short runs tomorrow.”
As famous, Tsunoda accomplished 85 laps on the day, the fourth-most out of any driver throughout Friday’s two testing classes.
Jonathan Eddolls, AlphaTauri’s Chief Racing Engineer, referred to as the day “productive,” and set the stage for the ultimate day of testing, when he hopes to see much more efficiency from the AT04:
“Overall, we had a very productive day of testing. The car was very reliable and enabled us to complete 159 laps with no major issues. Yuki was in the car in the morning and, after the usual rake running to start with, he went straight into a race simulation to begin preparations for Round One. We completed a two-stop strategy and tested the new Pirelli C1 compound as part of that, to gather important data ahead of next week. Yuki closed the morning with some set-up work, trying to improve the balance in the hot conditions. Nyck took over in the afternoon and the focus was on aero work, trying some larger set-up items which we wouldn’t usually have the opportunity to test during the time-limited Free Practice sessions. Nyck then made very good progress with a series of new tyre runs towards the end of the day, finding lap time and improving on each set, which was great to see. The testing today has highlighted some areas of the car performance that we need to dig into deeper tonight through data analysis, so we can make changes and find even more performance for the final day of testing tomorrow.”
Pre-season testing attracts to a detailed Friday in Bahrain, with de Vries taking the morning session for AlphaTauri, whereas Tsunoda closes issues out within the afternoon for the staff. This might be Tsunoda’s first session below the lights, which can give the AlphaTauri driver an opportunity to imitate the circumstances he’ll see subsequent week, within the first Grand Prix of the 2023 F1 season.