Why Alfa Romeo fell short of expectations in the past two races and why things should pick up again in Canada
The Alfa Romeo team is celebrating a return to mid-table in the 2022 Formula One season after two difficult years, with the Swiss outfit sitting 6th in the Constructors’ Championship with 41 points after eight races run. But the form is pointing downwards again after two weaker Grands Prix in Monaco and Baku.
After Valtteri Bottas had just attracted attention at the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with outstanding times in the slow, technical Sector 3, Alfa Romeo travelled to Monaco with high expectations.
But in the Principality, the team experienced a middling disaster. Instead of being able to fight at the front again, Bottas and Guanyu Zhou only managed twelfth and twentieth place in qualifying. Thanks to the chaotic rain race, Bottas managed a bit of damage limitation with ninth place, but they could not really be satisfied with that.
Alfa not fast enough on first qualifying lap
After all, according to Alfa, the cause was quickly clear: Bottas missed the first free practice session after a technical problem, which is why the team had made a mistake with the set-up due to the missing data.
Accordingly, Alfa Romeo should have returned to its old form in Baku, but it did not. In qualifying, the team again only finished 14th and 15th, but Guanyu Zhou showed that theoretically more would have been possible with a strong pace in the race, which he had to retire from early due to cooling problems.
But what is the problem at Alfa Romeo at the moment? Chief engineer Xevi Pujolar is at least certain that Monaco and Baku had different causes. According to him, in Baku they had problems getting the softest Pirelli tyre, the so-called C5, to work. That is why Bottas and Zhou were not able to achieve a “representative qualifying result”.
To go forward again in Canada
“The competition is able to get more time out on a timed lap than us,” Pujolar explained. “Then on the second fast lap our performance is better. But that is not enough. We are getting there in Q2, but we need to do better. “
So if qualifying is the problem, why couldn’t Bottas go at the same pace as his teammate in the race? According to Pujolar, the cars were running with different configurations. Zhou’s performance, however, was proof that the Monaco problems had been overcome.
However, Bottas, of all people, the slower of the two Alfas, was driving with the new parts. After the disappointing qualifying on Saturday, Bottas reported “a fundamental problem” which prevented him from going faster. What exactly that is is currently being investigated at Hinwill.
For the race in Canada, they want to change as many parts as possible. Then Alfa wants to be able to match the performance of Spain. Pujolar is correspondingly combative: “I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t be in the fight at the front.
