F1 | AlphaTauri, enough rookies to train. It's not just a choice

AlphaTauri, now ready to change its name, is in the midst of a change that to define as significant would be an understatement. New name, new sponsors, a new team principal – Laurent Mekies – but above all a new mission: to recover after two seasons deemed disappointing by the ownership and become a more important factor in Formula 1.

The ownership, i.e. the Red Bull Group, has begun to plan the performance rebirth of the team by intensifying the synergy between Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri – something that is already being discussed, but is destined to do so even more in a few weeks – and embracing precise strategies.

The time for this recovery is not set in the medium to long term. And now. Or rather, in a few weeks, when the winter tests will take place in Sakhir and, shortly after, also the first of the 24 grands prix that make up the 2024 Formula 1 calendar.

Since the Faenza team was purchased by the Red Bull Group, it has always been used as a breeding ground for developing young talents. The best then ended up in Red Bull (just remember Sebastian Vettel with 4 titles, Max Verstappen with 3 and Daniel Ricciardo, winner of grand prix). Now this policy has been shelved.

Peter Bayer, CEO of Scuderia AlphaTauri for a few months, explained why: “The shareholders, when they were redefining things, also said: 'we want you to be competitive'”, said Bayer. “Franz always says, and honestly in the meantime I agree 100%, that a young driver needs three years to be ready for F1.

“With all the complexity that sport requires currently, and the amount of information that they have to digest and process and then give back to us, so that we can understand again as a team what to do, how to change settings and so on, and to be competitive they simply have need a lot of time.”

According to Bayer, the team leaders understood that they had to change things once Liam Lawson made his debut, called upon to replace the injured Daniel Ricciardo in the second half of the season.

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Liam Lawson, Scuderia AlphaTauri, walks away from his car and withdraws from the Sprint race

“I knew it the moment we put a young driver in the car,” he said. “Because what happens is a change in the flow of information, whereas with an expert pilot like Daniel he gives his contribution to the engineer, who gives it to the operations room, who then comes back with the information.”

“With a young driver the information flows from the operations room to the engineers, from the pit wall to the driver. 'Be constantly careful in that corner. Make sure you have the right paddles,' or 'Brake later, brake earlier, check the steering, check the rear, check the engine braking.' By the way, there's someone coming from behind.”

“Honestly, it's like in a theater, the engineer is always busy talking on the radio. While with Daniel he's calm. And once at the lap, he comes back and says: 'Guys, there's a problem with the rear, can you give a 'look?', 'Oh, yes, we noticed overheating, we can work on the differential'. And it's all solved.”

“Or he comes back after three or four laps and says, 'Have you thought about changing the strategy? Because I'm stuck here in a DRS train, and rather than wait, why not…?', 'Yeah, good idea!'”

“You can feel the difference. And then, obviously, the work that we do with him in the simulator, the performance of the vehicle, is just something completely different. So an experienced driver takes a young person under his wing. And this young person must also be prepared”.

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Daniel Ricciardo, Scuderia AlphaTauri

Let's be clear, Lawson didn't disfigure himself at all behind the wheel of the AT04, despite being in all respects a rookie. Indeed, he even managed to score points at the Singapore Grand Prix (ninth) before making room for the recovered Ricciardo.

Yet, now all this is no longer enough for the team. Red Bull will field Max Verstappen – irreplaceable to date – and Sergio Perez also in the 2024 season, but it is clear that the Mexican has been on the gridiron for some time now. The presence of Daniel Ricciardo in AlphaTauri, without forgetting Yuki Tsunoda, is an attempt to relaunch the Australian and then make the most suitable choice for 2025.

Should Perez continue the negative parenthesis that began in Miami 2023 and, at the same time, Ricciardo give excellent responses, then the change between the two would be inevitable. In short, AlphaTauri's choice, at least for this year, is to try to relaunch Ricciardo for reasons of opportunity, of course, but also for the objective lack of drivers ready to take on his legacy and lead AlphaTauri to the recovery right from the start.

Lawson remained in Faenza as the third driver to grow further, but it should not be forgotten that the famous talent hotbed of Milton Keynes, at least in recent seasons, has not been able to find or wean talented drivers to the point of convincing the Group's top management to put them in AlphaTauri. Last year, Nyck De Vries, a product of the McLaren-Mercedes academy, was chosen. Then Ricciardo was brought back after the bad spell in Woking.

In short, AlphaTauri's stop to focus on rookies is indeed a choice to have more opportunities to immediately move up in the Constructors' ranking, but also an imposition from the real lack of drivers with great prospects coming from the academy. A paradoxical situation, if we think about the scouting that Milton Keynes have always been more than proud of.