28/12/2022
NEWS STORY
AlphaTauri will reveal its 2023 livery in New York City in early February.
A somewhat annoying trend, livery launches allow teams two bites of the publicity cherry, leaving fans and the media to wait a little longer before the actual car is revealed.
Though the livery launch is likely to be high profile, what with the Faenza-based outfit opting for a "NYC" reveal on February 11, it is likely that the car will be quietly unveiled in a far more low-key 'ceremony' in the moments before testing gets underway in Bahrain almost two weeks later.
Its livery aside, AlphaTauri will see seeking a significant step forward next season having recorded its worst finish in 2022 since 2018, its first season using Honda engines.
With Pierre Gasly jumping ship to Alpine, Yuki Tsunoda is joined by Nyck de Vries, giving the Faenza-based outfit one of the most inexperienced line-ups on the grid.
Scoring points in the opening three races, the team got its season off to a perfect start, and while Tsunoda scored an eighth at Imola and Gasly a fifth in Baku that was as good as it got, with the team lacking consistency, reliability and its drivers getting involved in too many incidents.
Like Mercedes, the Faenza-based is thought to have gone the wrong way in terms of the concept of the car under the rules overhaul, with Gasly admitting such several times over the course of the season.
Back to the livery reveal, as time moves on it is likely that car launches will be an area that Liberty seeks to 'spice up' in the coming years as this is the public's first opportunity to see the news cars and any changes to the line-ups.
While the sport has witnessed some glitzy events over the years, in recent times only a couple of teams have gone to any effort to put on a show at a time fans have been starved of action for a couple of months.
The recent trend of having the drivers reveal the car in the pitlane in the moments ahead of testing appears half-hearted and is unlikely to sit well with Liberty or indeed the sport's and teams' sponsors.