With what expectations Alfa Romeo is going into the remaining 2023 Formula 1 season races and how well the recent updates to the C43 have hit
The World Championship may be decided, but not all positions in the 2023 Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship have been finalized. And Alfa Romeo is one of the teams that still fancies its chances of improving.
Chief engineer Xevi Pujolar, for example, says: “We’re still aiming for P7, ahead of Williams.” But Alfa Romeo is currently at least ten points short of that, and for its part is only four points ahead of Haas. Even AlphaTauri is only another two points behind.
Pujolar therefore expects a close showdown at the back of the standings, saying, “AlphaTauri is now strong and Haas is also strong with its update. So things could change quickly in the races in Mexico and Sao Paulo. These weekends will probably be decisive in how things develop, whether P7 is realistic for us or not.”
Which could work to Alfa Romeo’s advantage: The team now has a better handle on the modified C43, although question marks remain. Pujolar: “Sometimes you’re okay on a lap but have problems in the race. That changes from track to track with different tires and in different conditions. And it doesn’t take much.”
In Qatar, for example, Alfa Romeo had a “difficult sprint” and then a “good Grand Prix” the day after, according to the team’s chief engineer. “In Austin it was different again: qualifying was good, the race not so much. “
Alfa Romeo has to put down its fluctuations
For this reason, Pujolar is primarily looking for a “completely strong weekend” with Alfa Romeo in Mexico, saying, “We have another opportunity here because we introduced an update at the last race. We want to optimize that further in Mexico. Hopefully, it’s going in our direction.”
But “our direction” isn’t necessarily what it was at the start of the season, Pujolar admits. “That’s when I would have said we’d be in a better position at a slower pace and in hotter temperatures. But now everything is so close and our car actually works pretty well in all conditions.”
“What really matters is more whether you can drive freely or are stuck in traffic. That changes a lot of how the lap develops. So for us it’s about maximizing everything because it’s very tight everywhere. “
Alfa Romeo can’t get the tires to work
And most recently, Alfa Romeo has been unfortunate, especially in qualifying, says Valtteri Bottas. In addition, there were “question marks” about tire usage. “In Austin, I just didn’t find any grip in Saturday qualifying with medium, and the pace wasn’t there in sprinting either. “
“With fresher tires it always worked, but for some reason the hard tires didn’t work at all for us in the Grand Prix in the last stint. We were sliding too much and struggling with overheating, even though it was the hard compound. I don’t think we managed to get the set-up right. “
Better chances in Mexico than last time in the USA?
But that had a simple reason, according to Bottas: Alfa Romeo didn’t want to take any chances with the chassis height because it had had “concerns” with the floorpan that later doomed Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc and Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton.
“We couldn’t drive the car low enough [because of those concerns]. And if your car is set too high on a track like that, then you lose all the more. That limited our set-up quite a bit,” Bottas explains.
Yet on paper, the C43 should be in good shape. “The data says everything is working as it should. But so far we haven’t managed to get the best out of the update.”
“We can only get the performance by going as low as possible. That’s why I have more hope for Mexico,” Bottas says. “The track is pretty flat, plus the car won’t be pushed down as much because of the altitude.” Both could play into Alfa Romeo’s cards.
