Alphatauri, the sister team of the current constructor champions Red Bull. The team finished the season in 8th and had three drivers which got them to this point.
The team made an improvement on their overall finishing this year as they moved from finishing 9th last season to 8th this year, this is despite being awarded fewer points than last year!
So let’s have a look at what happened with Alphatauri over the 2023 F1 championship…
To start the year the driver lining was Nyck De Vries and Yuki Tsunoda the pair lasted together until July when it was announced that Daniel Ricciardo would be rejoining the grid ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
It was a decision which wasn’t made lightly for the team but with De Vries not performing to the level the team were hoping for and Ricciardo already being a reserve driver for Red Bull the decision was made that the Honey Badger would return to the grid, a popular decision amongst the F1 fanbase.
However, the return didn’t come easily and his third race back on the grid he sustained a break in his left hand after a crash during a practice session in the Dutch Grand Prix.
The injury saw Ricciardo out for five races and he was replaced by New Zealand driver Liam Lawson who did more than enough to earn the respect of everyone up and down the grid.
Liam Lawson finished in 13th on his debut grand Prix after qualifying in 20th place he then went on to earn his on his third F1 race where he took 9th place in Singapore securing him two points in the driver’s standings., more points than Nyck De Vries did in his half of the season.
Alphatauri scored points in four of the final five races with Tsunoda finishing in 8th in the final race of the season but Ricciardo finished just outside of the points in 11th.
It wasn’t a terrible season overall for the Italian-based team finishing on 25 points.
But in my opinion, the team still had areas of improvement and maybe the driver lining going into the 2024 season could have been better with Lawson filling one of the seats.