AlphaTauri Boss Labels Gasly and Kvyat’s 2020 Success Better Than Vettel’s 2008 Heroics

AlphaTauri have come a long way since their introduction as Red Bull’s ‘junior team’ in 2006. The team, after a rebranding phase, have their own set of goals and aspirations to fulfill.

Formerly Toro Rosso, the team enjoyed a great 2008 season with a certain Sebastian Vettel emerging from the ranks. He delivered the team’s first ever race win in the Italian Grand Prix in quite a stunning fashion.

But AlphaTauri Team Principal Franz Tost believes that the collective success in 2020 outweighed Vettel’s brilliance in the 2008 campaign. He also thinks that it is down to the consistency in results last year, which strengthens his case.

We had a ‘fantastic’ victory with Sebastian Vettel in 2008, says Franz Tost

Speaking in an interview, Tost stated, “In 2008, yes, it was a fantastic victory with Sebastian in Monza, but we didn’t have so many good finishes like this year. It wasn’t only the victory in Monza.

“There were many other good races that we had with the fourth place at Imola, the fifth place in Portimao. We were sixth in Bahrain and in Germany, seventh in Austria, Great Britain and Mugello.”

Interestingly, the locations of both the team’s victories came at the ‘Temple of Speed’ that is Monza. But in 2020 overall, contributions from both Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat ensured AlphaTauri had a strong season with a number of points finishes.

“We didn’t have only one exciting race. We had a lot of very good race results, and this put us plenty ahead of 2008,” concluded Tost on the subject.

AlphaTauri had many good and rewarding races in their 2020 F1 campaign

Undoubtedly, Gasly’s terrific win at Monza in 2020 was the team’s standout moment, which garnered wholesome appreciation.

But setting that aside, the Frenchman’s 5th in Portimao and Kvyat’s impressive 4th in Imola deserves honorable mentions as well.

So from a big picture perspective, the Faenza-based outfit showed that they could become a midfield team in the future. With a renewed driver lineup for 2021, we may see a more capable AlphaTauri take the fight higher up.