AT01, first AlphaTauri challenger, is a strong evolution of last year's STR14 because the changes to the technical regulations for 2020 are fairly minimal. The focus has gone on pushing forward the main priorities such as PU packaging, suspension, the electronic systems, and integrating all of that together to take the car to the next level and to give us maximum aero freedom.

The chassis is the core element around which the entire car is built, with the driver's survival cell at its heart. Attached to the chassis is all the other major components; power unit, transmission, suspension, bodywork, wings, and the floor. Designed and built entirely in-house, it is homologated after passing stringent pre-season tests. The rear end, the inboard front suspension and uprights, are from last year's Red Bull Racing car, while the suspension members and associated brackets are Scuderia AlphaTauri Designed & Manufactured.

The technical regulations relating to the PU have hardly changed since last year. The key is continuity as this is our third year together with Honda. The Power Unit consists of a 1600cc V6 turbocharged combustion engine with two electrical energy recovery systems that generate additional horsepower which is stored in a battery: the MGU-K recovers kinetic energy from braking and the MGU-H converts energy from the turbo exhaust gases.

Birds need wings to fly, but turn the wings around and they help keep our car glued to the ground. Produced in-house, all the car surfaces that are brushed by airflow; the bodywork, wings, and other aero elements are designed and evaluated in the wind tunnel and manufactured from carbon fibre. In 2020, we could give the aero guys more freedom to develop without us having to make costly, in-season, non-performance-enhancing updates. So, the focus has been on getting everything packaged as tight as it can be.

The bodywork produces aerodynamic grip, while the tyres generate mechanical grip and transfer the power from the engine to the track surface. If our car were a runner, the tyres would be its shoes. In 2020, Formula 1 teams use the Pirelli tyre compounds from 2019. Pirelli produces five different dry-weather compounds from the hardest C1, to the softest C5. Just three are available at any one race: white banded Hard, yellow Medium, and red Soft. Plus two types of wet weather tyres: blue extremes and green intermediates.