Dissecting the AT02 - How Have Red Bull Influenced the Design?
How has it changed from 2020's race winning design?
Fun Fact: Alpha Tauri is actually a clothing brand.
The last time a clothing brand was in F1, it was called 'Benetton' - and it won multiple World Championships! Can the AT02 achieve the same?
No, of course it can't. I'm messing with you. And indeed this car is much more an evolution of the first, not a revolution. There have been some tweaks though, so let's explore them!
Even though the car has less obvious changes than the McLaren, it's taken more risks than the Woking outfit with the new floor. The revised 2021 regulation have taken away the longitudinal slots and vanes from the rear of the floor, and what McLaren did was simply leave most of it:
Dissecting the MCL35M - And Why McLaren are Already on the Back Foot
Alpha Tauri on the other hand decided to introduce some more aerodynamic devices, with a cut section around halfway down the floor (see above). This could be either to disturb the air and channel to somewhere else - probably to the diffuser, or feed it underneath directly to the diffuser. This comes with the problem of affecting the energised air that is already there, and given AT have a large rake - like Red Bull - this could make it even more sensitive and problematic.
The bargeboard also saw a small change, moving away from the now increasingly out of fashion 'plates' to the 'venetian blinds', which are run by the likes of Mercedes and Renault (red circle). The red streaks show the different paths the air could take as it navigates the rear of the AT02; like most cars now the engine cover is slimmer - not as slim as the MCL35M though, perhaps because of the Honda engine - which allows more space for the aerodynamicists to add in contours and undercuts.
Another one of the tweaked rules for this year mandates that the inside fences of the diffuser have to be 50mm shorter; and AT are the first to reveal their design. The red arrows demonstrate just how short they've become relative to 2020, whilst the red circle displays the triple exhaust arrangement which Red Bull also have.
The biggest change actually comes from the part of the car which looks the most similar to last year's; the front. AT spent their development tokens on the nose cone and suspension; and exactly like last season they've adopted parts from the previous Red Bull.
This time it's their innovative steering solution (see below) which allowed the RB16 to run a thinner nose. Jody Egginton, Alpha's technical director, says their nose is actually thinner too, but from the pictures they released it's not clear. It is entirely possible though that the pre-season car might run the smaller nose, becoming the sixth team to do so, but we'll have to wait and see.
The Suspensions Giving Mercedes and Red Bull the Edge
AT had the option to inherit Red Bull's rear suspension too, but decided against it to save those all-important development tokens for the front of the car instead.
So that's it! Not much, eh?
So what do you think? Let me know below 👇
***
All pictures sourced from the above sources, whilst all edits are my own
***