[Team] Scuderia Alpha Tauri

[Akrapovic]

This thread went pretty quiet after Liam Lawson made things a bit awkward.

[Aysedasi]

Yes, he's given them plenty to think about......

[Alan52]

It seems Lawson is going to be on the bench again in 2024.
To me he is the best of the 3 options.Clearly better than Tsnoda,at least as good and much younger than Ricciardo.
Helmet is doubling down on his bad call to choose deVries over him at the start of the year.

[Akrapovic]

So honest question - what is the point of this team now? I thought that it was to supply drivers for the main team?

Yuki has long shown he's not going to make it. Danny has been there and left. Dev was a quick failure, even by RBR standards. Lawson is looking promising. If the team ends up as Yuki and Danny, then is it supplying the main team?

Danny and Lawson would appear to be the optimal line up from the 4 drivers they've used, and one of them (arguably both) can make it to the main team.

[broadrun96]

I'm sorry, were you under the impression the team was to find good drivers? It's there so Helmet can play God and pretend he's brilliant for finding Max, how dare you judge his abilities

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

I'm sorry, were you under the impression the team was to find good drivers? It's there so Helmet can play God and pretend he's brilliant for finding Max, how dare you judge his abilities

Perhaps the more pertinent question now, is what is the point of Marko these days?

He's 80+ years old, makes sweeping ill advised generalisations and it seems poor selection decisions.

[P38 in workshop]

I don't know if there are commercial considerations coming into play with driver selection in this instance.I may be a bit of a contrarian but I would have gone with Lawson and DeVries and kept Danny Ric as RB reserve.

[Richard C]

I think they see something in Yuki. I think he has speed, but lacks consistency. Maybe they are looking to get him to settle down. I generally think the fact that Liam has managed to swim so quickly in F1 that this has translated to him being somehow viewed as clearly better than Yuki. This puzzles me as IMHO, there is just not enough data to show it one way or another. If anything I would say it's in Yuki's favor, but you would expect that as he is senior in the team. I think they picked Daniel over Liam for his pure experience. Maybe the focus in the near term is car development and they want Daniel to help move the car in the right direction.

Richard

[peebee2]

The team feel Yuki has had the edge over Liam on pace at each weekend they’ve both done, but also acknowledge his much greater F1 experience.

[bathurst77]

I thought Yuki was there because Honda wants a Japanese driver

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by peebee2

The team feel Yuki has had the edge over Liam on pace at each weekend they’ve both done, but also acknowledge his much greater F1 experience.

But surely they expected that as LL was thrown in at the deep end?!

The pace picture has changed considerably over a very short time.

LL has clearly illustrated he has a far higher development ceiling than YT has has and in just 4 races!

[Rusty Nail]

Interesting that early in the race on equivalent tyres Liam could drive around Yuki and take the place. Towards the end of the race when Yuki was on about six lap younger tyres he couldn't overtake Liam.

The only time Yuki got ahead of Liam was due to the pit stop strategy and getting the undercut.

Hope Danny Ric decides to play safe with his hand and Liam gets to do Qatar.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by bathurst77

I thought Yuki was there because Honda wants a Japanese driver

He's been supported by Honda since 2016, through their Honda Formula Dream Project, so that would make sense.

[GTRMagic]

So for 2024, shall we see Mr Tsunoda in the seat til the Japanese GP.. and a change happens?

[steve_r]

If Lawson gets left out for a has been and a never will be (harsh, I know), then the team is clearly no longer about finding future driving talent.

NDV was a bit of a weird choice as well, all of which makes me wonder what the point really is of having a junior team like this.

As long as Verstappen keeps doing his thing, I don't suppose that the RB family of teams need to worry too much.

[Skam85]

RB only need to hit gold every few years.

Vettel and Max have netted them six, about to be seven titles in 14 seasons.

Then we have to a lesser extent race winners Ricciardo and Sainz and an even lesser extent Gasly and Albon.

That's 25% of the current grid without including Yuki or Liam.

Love them or loathe them, it's brutal but their method absolutely works.

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by Skam85

RB only need to hit gold every few years.

Vettel and Max have netted them six, about to be seven titles in 14 seasons.

Then we have to a lesser extent race winners Ricciardo and Sainz and an even lesser extent Gasly and Albon.

That's 25% of the current grid without including Yuki or Liam.

Love them or loathe them, it's brutal but their method absolutely works.

Spot on. People still don't get that they're not looking for competence. They're looking for superstars.,

[peterelise]

I could well be wrong, but I don’t think Max is a product of the Red Bull young driver system (in the sense they didn’t fund his junior career). Didn’t they simply manage to be the first team to offer him a drive in F1 and he signed with them over Mercedes because RB had a spot immediately available and Merc didn’t?

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by peterelise

I could well be wrong, but I don’t think Max is a product of the Red Bull young driver system (in the sense they didn’t fund his junior career). Didn’t they simply manage to be the first team to offer him a drive in F1 and he signed with them over Mercedes because RB had a spot immediately available and Merc didn’t?

Max joined the Red Bull Junior Team in 2014 before joining STR in 2015. He also tested at the 2014 Japanese GP for STR.
He did have an offer to join the Mercedes development programme at the same time.

Red Bull might not have funded his entire junior career, but he is a graduate of their driver development program.

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by peterelise

I could well be wrong, but I don’t think Max is a product of the Red Bull young driver system (in the sense they didn’t fund his junior career). Didn’t they simply manage to be the first team to offer him a drive in F1 and he signed with them over Mercedes because RB had a spot immediately available and Merc didn’t?

People forget this, as well as the fact that Vettel was a 50% BMW junior as well as a 50% Red Bull one.

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by peebee2

People forget this, as well as the fact that Vettel was a 50% BMW junior as well as a 50% Red Bull one.

I doubt Trevor Carlin has forgotten...

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by bathurst77

I thought Yuki was there because Honda wants a Japanese driver

Well he's the only driver I've seen get a NY Times daily segment on him in their email

[peterelise]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Max joined the Red Bull Junior Team in 2014 before joining STR in 2015. He also tested at the 2014 Japanese GP for STR.
He did have an offer to join the Mercedes development programme at the same time.

Red Bull might not have funded his entire junior career, but he is a graduate of their driver development program.

I know Mercedes made him an offer to join but the difference was that Red Bull said he could race in F1 immediately and Merc wasn’t able to offer that. In my mind he is a not a product of the Red Bull young driver programme.

[Skam85]

And in my mind I'm a multi-billionaire married to the most beautiful woman in the world

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by peterelise

I know Mercedes made him an offer to join but the difference was that Red Bull said he could race in F1 immediately and Merc wasn’t able to offer that. In my mind he is a not a product of the Red Bull young driver programme.

He joined the Red Bull Junior Team in 2014, racing in F3 with Dutch team Van Amersfoort Racing.