Driver Profiles: Gasly and Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)

Scuderia AlphaTauri, formally known as Toro Rosso, is the sister and development team of Red Bull Racing. The team started as Minardi back in 1985, with drivers such as Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber and Jos Verstappen. In 2005 the team was bought by Red Bull who rebranded it as Scuderia Toro Rosso for the 2006 season, seeing the likes of Carlos Sainz Jr, Daniel Ricciardo, Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel as their drivers. The team name was changed to Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda between 2018 and 2019, before being changed to Scuderia AlphaTauri for the 2020 season. The team's drivers this season are Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda, with Franz Tost as the team principal with Helmut Marko as their advisor to Red Bull.

Pierre Gasly #10

Gasly is a 25-year-old Frenchman who started karting in 2006, aged 10. He progressed through Formula Renault, starting in 2011 before making his GP2 debut in Monza in 2014. The driver drove in the 2017 Super Formula Championship, as well as making an appearance in Formula E in the same year. His titles include the 2016 GP2 Series and the 2013 Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0. In terms of Formula 1, Gasly signed as a reserve driver for Red Bull Racing, making his debut in 2017 when replacing Kvyat at a few races for Toro Rosso, taking his seat permanently for the 2018 season. In 2019, he was promoted to Red Bull, partnering with Verstappen; however, it was not smooth sailing. After struggling with consistency, the driver was demoted back to Toro Rosso before the 2019 Belgian GP, where he has remained ever since. Gasly has two podiums to his name – his first came in 2019 after being demoted, coming in 2nd in the Brazilian GP, before taking P1 at Monza in 2020, the same track where his best friend Antoine Hubert tragically passed the year before in a fatal F2 crash.

Yuki Tsunoda #22

Tsunoda is one of three rookies on the grid this year; the 21-year-old Japanese driver joined AlphaTauri this season. His career started in karting in 2010, competing in different classes before joining Japanese Formula 4 between 2016 and 2018/ In 2019, the driver compered in F3 and Euroformula Open, before moving up into Formula 2 for the 2020 season where he finished 3rd. In August 2020, it was announced that Tsunoda would be joining the team, replacing Daniil Kvyat. The driver took points in the first race of his career coming in 9th at Bahrain; Tsunoda is the only F1 driver to have been born in the 21st Century. The driver has come under some scrutiny recently for his temper however the rookie shows huge signs of promise, being hailed “F1s best rookie for years’ by F1’s technical director.

Other Drivers

The team share Alex Albon as a reserve driver with Red Bull. You can read more about him here!