AlphaTauri Technical Director Jody Egginton has urged the team to improve after they failed to score points at the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix. It was a difficult weekend for the squad at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve; Nyck de Vries and Yuki Tsunoda lined up in P17 and P19 on the grid respectively, with Tsunoda having received a three-place grid penalty for impeding during qualifying. Both drivers struggled to make much ground in the race. Tsunoda worked his way forwards to P14, while de Vries ended the day in P18 following a collision with Kevin Magnussen. Reflecting on the weekend, Egginton admitted that the team's qualifying positions made Sunday's race "more difficult than it needed to be".
AlphaTauri: Trying something different didn't work out
"[Our qualifying result], combined with Yuki's three-place penalty, forced us into trying something different and unfortunately, it didn't work out," Egginton explained. "We made a very early stop with Yuki to use the free air to recover race time. The strategy was working quite well and Yuki got back into the pack, however, losing a bit of time behind Magnussen on older tyres, the decision was made to convert to a two-stop. "This cost a bit more track position than expected due to a slow stop so ultimately, we couldn't get back to the pack led by [Alex] Albon." Things did not work out much better for de Vries. "Nyck's race was mainly in traffic and unfortunately, his first stop was made the lap before the Safety Car, meaning he wasn't able to take advantage of the undercut," Egginton added. "Subsequent contact with Magnussen later in the race cost him more time, along with a raft of blue flags."
Losing out to competitors
The result proved all the more disappointing for the team in light of Egginton's belief that points were possible. "We need to review Yuki's race to determine if sticking with the one-stop strategy could have potentially provided a better result," he continued. "In terms of pace, had we managed to qualify further up the grid and been able to utilise a more conventional strategy, I believe we could've scored points." With AlphaTauri now sitting at the bottom of the Constructors' standings – having been outscored by Williams in Montreal – Egginton admits that the squad rapidly need to improve to avoid losing further ground to their rivals. "Qualifying was the key aspect of the weekend, and we need to be executing better going forwards, so we're better placed to start scoring and recovering from our current situation where we are dropping points, and letting our closest competitors move away from us in the Constructors' Championship," he conceded.
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