2020 season

The 2020 Formula 1 season was our first as Scuderia AlphaTauri having raced as Scuderia Toro Rosso for the past 14 years from 2006 to 2019. Everyone in the sport had to face great complications because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but in the end, it turned out to be a spectacular year for our team in terms of results. The entire team and everyone in the company worked constantly all year long and the two outstanding highlights were Pierre Gasly winning the Italian Grand Prix and the fact we scored a total of 107 points, more than in any other year, a feat even more noteworthy given that there were just 17 races in 2020.

The first car of this new era was the AT01, proudly showing off the AlphaTauri logo on the engine cover and rear wing, as part of a beautiful new livery mixing white and matte dark blue. There was a splash of red, courtesy of the logo from Honda who supplied the RA620H Power Unit and, according to a poll of Formula 1 fans, the car bearing allegiance to Red Bull’s own premium fashion brand, was the prettiest of the year.

Formula 1’s 70^th anniversary year could not have faced a more challenging situation. Just like everyone else in the world, F1 had to deal with the Coronavirus and many Grands Prix were cancelled or postponed. Things got underway on 5 July with the Austrian Grand Prix, with 17 races crammed into a short space of time, ending in Abu Dhabi on 13 December. All sorts of measures were put into place to keep the virus at bay, with strict health rules and checks for all the teams and everyone involved, with the majority of races being held behind closed doors with no spectators. The need to fit in as many races as possible led to the use of venues new to Formula 1, such as Portimao and Mugello, as well as the return of old favourites such as Imola, the Nurburgring and Istanbul.

On a technical level, the 2020 regulations were pretty much the same as those of the previous year with the same five tyre compounds as used in 2019 supplied by Pirelli, with three of them chosen per race.

After they each scored a fine podium finish in 2019, Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat were back again and they produced plenty of thrills to get the fans excited, the high point being Pierre Gasly winning the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. The photos of him spraying the champagne in a shower of tricolore confetti will stay with us for a long time. It was a repeat of Sebastian Vettel’s 2008 win, back in Italy, back in Monza.

And the results kept coming with 15 points finishes from the 17 races, 10 for Pierre and 7 for Daniil. Among the other highlights were Kvyat’s fourth place in the Emilia-Romagna GP at Imola, just 15 kilometres from our Faenza factory and Pierre’s fifth in Portugal. The team ended the year seventh in the Constructors’ classification.