After the recent Qatar success, Alfa Romeo believes Williams’ seventh place in the WRC is doable: seven points to make up
Alfa Romeo team principal Alessandro Alunni Bravi believes the Hinwil-based team can keep pace with Williams in the remaining five races of the 2023 Formula One season and fight for seventh place in the World Championship
After a frustrating run of just one point in eight race weekends, the team took an important step forward in Qatar with Valtteri Bottas’ eighth place and Guanyu Zhou’s ninth.
The six points lifted Alfa to eighth in the championship standings, ahead of Haas and just seven points behind Williams.
While Williams has made it clear it is focused on the 2024 project, rivals Alfa Romeo and AlphaTauri have continued to bring new parts to the track, while Haas is putting a lot of faith in a major upgrade package to be unveiled this weekend in Austin that will add an extra dimension to the battle for the minor places.
“We are confident that we can fight for seventh place until the end of the season because we have decided to develop the car,” Alunni Bravi told Motorsport.com’s English-language edition.
“But of course we have to deliver a perfect race every race weekend like in Qatar, both from the team and the driver,” he stresses. “Qatar was a good reward, it was good for the team, for confidence and for our riders after a difficult period.”
“But the championship is still long, five races with two more sprint races. So there is still room for improvement. We have to look ahead to find even more performance in the next race. “
Different approach to updates
While the Haas upgrades attracted more attention due to their all-encompassing nature, Alfa quietly changed its car race by race, with a revised rear wing in Qatar the final touch in the latest series of updates.
“There is not only one way to develop a car, it also depends on what you find in the wind tunnel,” says Alunni Bravi. “I think every team has some developments, but then you have to understand if there is something that will give you the extra performance you need to make the step. “
“We decided at the beginning of the year to really push the development and we will continue to develop the car until the last race. Sometimes there is a big upgrade, like in Singapore with the new underbody.”
“But after a big upgrade we always try to optimise the package. In Qatar, we added a flatter rear wing flap to the package introduced in Singapore, which was necessary to have good performance in the medium-fast and slow corners, but not to have too big a deficit in top speed, which is still one of our weak points. “
Will there be points in Austin?
Alunni Bravi is confident the car will be competitive in Austin, but also sees opportunities to score points elsewhere. “We have seen that our car copes better with these conditions when we have a low efficiency track and need more downforce,” he says. “That’s why we think Austin will play into our cards.”
“Mexico will be a bit more difficult because I think Williams and AlphaTauri will be very strong there. And then of course Sao Paulo and Abu Dhabi, where we’ve always seen very interesting races that have been a bit unpredictable. “
“Las Vegas is new for everyone. We don’t know what to expect. But in Miami our package was competitive,” he adds.
“I think it depends on the mindset, the approach of the team and the drivers, what we will find with the new upgrades, and of course both drivers have to have a solid and mistake-free race because at the end of the season every point counts. And we can’t afford any mistakes on the track. “
