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Red Bull's advisor, Helmut Marko, is not satisfied with their sister team, AlphaTauri's performance, and he feels that the teams should perform better given the parts they receive.
AlphaTauri, previously known as Toro Rosso (translating to Red Bull from Italian), has been the sister team to RB for a long time. Their performances, as recently as the 2022 and current season, have not been satisfactory in Helmut Marko's opinion. The team finished 9th in 2022, just ahead of Williams, and in this season as well, they have hardly been competitive in the mid-field. Marko mentioned that the team' is not satisfied after AlphaTauri's 2022 performance, as PlanetF1 quoted him saying:
"Perform better, very simple. It’s no secret that we are not satisfied after last season. What we have seen so far from the aerodynamic side of AlphaTauri is not delivering what we hoped for either."
AlphaTauri has had little change in their driver lineup this season. After Pierre Gasly moved to Alpine, Nyck de Vries, who famously scored points in his first F1 race in Monza last year (as a replacement for Albon at Williams), took his place. However, both he and Yuki Tsunoda have been far off from the points, despite a pretty decent battle in Jeddah.
Marko feels AlphaTauri should be more competitive owing to Red Bull's benchmark
Since AlphaTauri is RB's sister team, there is an expectation to perform well in the midfield, which has not happened since the 2021 season.
Helmut Marko feels that since their team is highly dominant in the sport currently, leading and winning races, as well as both championships in 2022, AlphaTauri, too, should perform somewhat better.
"You have to look at how to change that. If we have the best car in the field, AlphaTauri has to stick to that benchmark. What is allowed is quite a lot. The whole rear axle, suspensions, gearboxes and the like – that you use as much as possible from Red Bull Racing."
Interestingly, there was an apparent rumor about AlphaTauri being put up for sale by the team, however, as Helmut Marko further revealed, that isn't true and they will continue to be a part of the RB campaign. It is expected that the team will pick up pace throughout the season and become more competitive in the midfield.
