AlphaTauri’s disappointing start to the 2023 season was reflected in suggestions from Jeddah team boss Franz Tost that he doesn’t trust his engineers after the car failed to meet expectations.

The new floor, introduced in Australia, is the car’s first major upgrade as the team tries to find more speed, although only de Vries used it for the remainder of the weekend in Melbourne after Yuki Tsunoda damaged his floor in FP1 it.

The Dutchman’s race ended when he was hit by Logan Sargeant on the final restart, but pointed out that the new floor and diffuser felt like a real step forward.

“I think the difference is very subtle,” de Vries said in Australia.

“Obviously on this particular track, there’s not really much low speed. But certainly all the development that’s been done on the car has been very necessary because everyone has worked hard.

Nyck de Vries, AlphaTauri AT04

Photography: Simon Galloway / motorsport pictures

“And I think all the little things that we keep bringing in — it’s not like a game changer, you don’t go from P15 to P8 — all the little things are making a difference.

“You keep searching and finding more, and then you find yourself on track to be closer to the top 10.

“Obviously, we are working closely together. We are working together as a team to address and highlight potential areas where we can improve and I think it is clear where we need to find performance.

“But it’s also a moving target, and it’s all relative to the competition, so it’s never good enough either.”

Regarding the new floor, he said: “I think it does help us a little bit, makes us more competitive. The midfield is so tight, just a little bit, to be able to swing so fast.

“So it definitely helps. It’s encouraging. But we need to keep pushing the team closer to the top ten.”

“We’re going to have some time now to try and understand what we’re bringing and hopefully we can use that to our advantage, bringing new updates and doing more development on the car,” he added.