Some F1 teams have worked with fashion companies or even watchmakers. However, AlphaTauri has done something very different with their latest collaboration. They’ve helped create a racing wheelchair for the Paralympics! And it looks incredible!
The F1 team have worked with RDS, a design and technology company, to create a racing wheelchair for Gold medal-winning Paralympian Tomoya Ito! How cool is that? It’s going to be raced in Tokyo in a few weeks time!
The wheelchair will have an AlphaTauri livery based on this year’s car, so motorsport is going to the Olympics in this small way! Unfortunately, they didn’t go for the white rims that make the car look so amazing, but the wheelchair still looks excellent, and in Tomoya Ito’s hands, it could be a winner.
collaborating with @rds_racing_ to get the WF01TR AT01 on track for Tokyo! 🤜🤛
check it out 👉 https://t.co/77gY79PU3u pic.twitter.com/kZwaQtJ67l
— Scuderia AlphaTauri (@AlphaTauriF1) August 6, 2021
Tomoya originally ordered a racing wheelchair by mistake after he lost the use of his legs, but he gave racing a go and wasn’t half bad. He won gold and silver medals at the Beijing and London Olympics and is returning to wheelchair racing for Tokyo 2020.
RDS are involved in developing high tech prototypes extremely fast. They’ve done work in motorsports, medicine and robotics and have been working with AlphaTauri since 2019.
Both F1 and wheelchair racing are all about the marginal gains you can get from technology which help them go that little bit faster, so the two have worked together on this project.
But it isn’t only about competition. F1 cars have given technology to standard road vehicles these days, and they want to do the same around the world for wheelchairs.
Fabian Wrabetz, AlphaTauri’s Commercial Director, said: “Our team clearly has a very close connection to Japan and therefore it felt even more special to support a Japanese athlete to compete in the Paralympics in his own country.
“The design team in our F1 Factory in Faenza, Italy, has invested a lot of effort into this project in order to find the perfect design. AlphaTauri is proud to be part of this endeavour and is looking forward to seeing the wheelchair competing in a few weeks.”
Hopefully, success at the Paralympics is just the start for their mobility ambitions. Tomoya’s said he’s going to give it everything he’s got, and we’ll definitely be cheering him on!
Good luck!
