New AlphaTauri blends second-hand style with originality

A new year, a new livery and a new name; say goodbye to Toro Rosso and say hello to AlphaTauri. Named after the Red Bull-owned clothing brand, the team's status as a B-team entity to the lead Red Bull Formula 1 squad remains, as does the driving staff and the team's technical operations in Bicester and Faenza. The team is just wearing a new hat.

But it's a rather lovely hat. The new white and matte blue livery looks particularly striking. Although Toro Rosso's metallic blue and silver hues were altogether popular, this compete overhaul will be too.

While AlphaTauri sounds like a disparaging nickname for Boris Johnson when spoken aloud, it also creates a confusing Alpha/Alfa duality in 2020's midfield as the team vies for Alph(f)a supremacy. It's going to take a lot of mental capacity for F1's fleet of commentators not to fall into old habits and blurt out 'Toro Rosso' - although one doesn't quite remember that happening when it transitioned from Minardi.

The AT01, as the chassis nomenclature now goes by, is not wildly different to the preceding STR14. The car, perhaps, has been slightly Red Bull-ified, but that's a legacy of using components designed for the lead outfit. Using old-spec designs - albeit built as new - AlphaTauri has a tried and tested front-running set of components that it does not have to expend resources developing itself. That extends from the gearbox and engine intake systems to the brakes and suspension.

Since Jody Egginton took over as technical director, Toro Rosso/AlphaTauri has pushed that B-team approach to almost Haas-grade levels, with the benefit of improved reliability that results from putting its freed-up resources into other areas. It also opens up the team to a greater design synergy between it and Red Bull; and while the budget for AlphaTauri is smaller and it therefore can't develop designs to the same level of sophistication, it can still pick the fruits of Red Bull's labour.

Those Red Bull design cues are evident in the new air intake, which strays from the style used last season where the opening was divided into three distinct inlets, and moves towards the Red Bull horizontal split.

There also seems to be a distinct Red Bull influence in the S-duct outlet, which features a winglet bridging over the top to improve the guidance of airflow along the bulkhead.

The ease of packaging the Honda power unit has been helped by sharing a consistent set of components with Red Bull

However, the team also enjoys its status as a somewhat-independent team, and is free to pursue its own design preferences. Retaining the inboard-loaded front wing is one such preference, continuing to stray from Red Bull's decision to use more of the outboard portion of the wing for downforce. It has also retained a similar nose section to last season, eschewing the trend seen this year in which teams opt for a thinner nose by tapering in the bulkhead.

The turning vanes around the sidepod are somewhat similar to those seen at Ferrari - where the horizontal element turns upwards - and AlphaTauri has used this to connect it to the boomerang, which attaches to the front face of the bargeboards. Those bargeboards look somewhat similar to last year's design, which could be a direct effort to mask the real components to be seen at testing. After all, Toro Rosso's launch bargeboards last season were much more rudimentary than the resulting spec in the races - so there's previous form here.

There's also a selection of small vortex generators nestled on the top of the sidepods, sat next to the repositioned mirrors - featuring, like many, the shroud around the top to trim some of the drag off of the mirror assembly.

Just as Honda continues to make progress in the powertrain stakes, AlphaTauri continues to showcase some incredibly slender bodywork - giving the airflow a clear path towards the Coke bottle section and the diffuser. The ease of packaging the Honda power unit has been helped by sharing a consistent set of components with Red Bull, and the two teams have once again packaged numerous radiator elements within the engine cover.

The team has also persisted with a spoon-shaped rear wing in its launch spec. While that's always open to change, and for lower-speed circuits the team will undoubtedly switch to elements with less curvature to get every drop of downforce out of it, it's a good compromise between drag and downforce. The outboard portions of the rear wing generate less downforce than the centre, and so creating a spoon section in the middle snips off a good level of drag without so much of a penalty.

Last year, the team enjoyed its best position in the championship since 2008, securing sixth with a brace of podiums. Sure, it enjoyed those results at Hockenheim and Interlagos thanks to a healthy dose of luck, but the improved technical relationship with Red Bull and the efforts of its drivers also paid dividends throughout the year. After all, with a poor car, a team will find it difficult to take advantage of lucky situations. With a good fundamental basis, Toro Rosso could manage that adeptly.

With the new AlphaTauri name, the squad will be hoping to make that next step up the pecking order. It will never be a front-running team - and there's no reason for it to be given it's expected to serve as a training ground for the young Red Bull stable of drivers.

Although Daniil Kvyat is a somewhat safe pair of hands, the resurgence of Pierre Gasly last season was a particular feel-good story, especially his route to second place in Brazil. Whether the two can continue make their cases to stick with the team beyond 2020 will largely hinge on how driveable the car is, but the lairy nature of the STR14 played a little into Gasly's hands more than the highly-strung Red Bull RB15 ever could.

If they are to dislodge Alex Albon from the Red Bull set-up and ward off the advances of those beneath them in the pecking order - Juri Vips, Yuki Tsunoda, Liam Lawson et al, both drivers will need to hit those heights of 2019 more often.

If they can do so, then it will be a welcome sight at the sharp end of the grid. The new AlphaTauri looks the part, and it's seriously dressed to impress.