"We're making sure that we've gone the right way" - AlphaTauri have lots of expectations from their first 'significant update of the year'

AlphaTauri are bringing their first major upgrade to their 2022 challenger, the AT-03, at the Imola GP this weekend.

According to technical director Jody Egginton, the team is expecting the new upgrades to deliver a “clear step forward” in terms of performance.

Speaking to the Motorsport Network, he said:

"It's the first sort of reasonably significant update of the year. The expectation is that we'll see a clear step forward in car performance from that, once we've got it working properly.”

"The main part of the update is the floor, and there'll be a front brake duct update as well. But the floor is the big area at the moment, there's a lot of performance in there. There's a lot of banana skins if you don't get it right as well.”

Getting the new upgrade to work as intended is a crucial step in the developmental process, according to Egginton. With the floors of the new generation of cars contributing to nearly 50 percent of the total downforce, any flaws could send them backward in terms of performance.

Unlike in previous seasons, teams have limited allowance for aerodynamic testing, meaning they have to ensure that each run in the wind tunnel doesn’t go to waste.

However, it also means there’s higher risk of new developments not working, as teams try to be as efficient as possible and only perform limited testing.

Explaining the tricky process, Egginton said:

"We're making sure that we've gone the right way. We've done a lot of subtle changes in these last events to try and put all that together, to give us a clearer view on which way we want to go with a major update for the floor."

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AlphaTauri focussed on on-track learning before bringing prototyping upgrades

To reduce the risk of going in the wrong developmental direction, resulting in a loss of performance, AlphaTauri are reportedly following a similar strategy to that of Ferrari.

Rather than making rapid changes to the car based on aero modeling, AlphaTauri are intent on learning about the original spec to understand what parts need improving.

According to Egginton, this saves the team from facing “nasty surprises” when new upgrades are introduced. Speaking to the Motorsport Network, he said:

"All the work we've been doing in the background has been really focused on making sure we're clear which way we want to go, before we do a major update. There's been no surprises, but there's track specifics regarding how the floor behaves, which are different to how it would have been in the previous regulations.

"We've delayed a little bit the first update to race four, just to make sure we were doing the right things and we were comfortable we're going the right way. There's been an awful lot of learning over these last couple of months."

AlphaTauri have shown some promising pace so far this season but seem to be one of the worst affected by porpoising. They currently sit in P8 in the constructor’s championship but could bounce back in the second half of the season to threaten midfield regulars.