The ‘client’ teams can use parts used by the supplier team the previous year
Those of Faenza have taken advantage of the letter of the regulation to ‘circumvent’ the freezing of changes in the chassis, using pieces homologated in the Red Bull of last year.
Recall that while the engine and aerodynamics are susceptible to development, the chassis elements have been divided into 50 ‘homologated’ components. Each of these components is assigned the value of one or two ‘tokens’, and each team has two tokens to ‘spend’ as they want, so they can only modify one or two elements according to their value.
But client teams – and AlphaTauri is Red Bull’s – can use the pieces that the ‘parent’ team already had approved in 2020. And those from Faenza are going to take advantage of it.
Franz Tost, the director of AlphaTauri, points out that the parts taken from the RB16 are ‘old’, they have not required new developments, and therefore it is fair to be able to use them without using ‘tokens’, according to the Austrian.
This allows them to significantly evolve their car in terms of suspensions or brakes, using the two tokens in a new nose, suitable for the changes they plan to introduce in the front aerodynamics. The reason is that the aerodynamic changes imply a change in the entire frontal structure and its resistance to impact, so it must pass a new homologation ‘crash test’.
The transfer from Red Bull to AlphaTauri is, however, limited. They have not changed the gearbox and therefore neither the rear suspension or the hydraulic system.
The issue is of particular concern to Renault and McLaren. The former are not client equipment but, in their status as an official biker or brand team, they must comply with the two evolution tokens. And McLaren will not be able to use any token although it will be able to make the necessary changes to adapt its car to the Mercedes engine, which will take the place of the Renault that they have used these last three years; for this reason, McLaren had to update its nose before the end of last season.
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