Always in America, but with a different spirit
Just under a week after the United States Grand Prix, with a disappointing outcome for theAlfa Romeo, the Swiss team returns for the second consecutive round on the American continent, this time moving further south than Texas. This weekend, in fact, the Circus will arrive in Mexico on the circuit ‘Hermanos Rodriguez’where Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou will have only one goal: to return to points area.
The unknown of altitude
The two drivers had managed to reach this goal in the infernal test in Lusail, but were unable to keep up with the pace of the competition in Austin, finishing outside the top-10. Now a rather particular event presents itself, especially for the level of altitude of the track, one of the highest ever. For this reason, with the circuit located just above 2000 meters in Mexico City, the thinnest air it will especially put the aerodynamics of the single-seaters to the test.
No surrender
A challenge that he will face in a particular way Bottas, who will want to replicate or improve last year’s result (10th) in order to recover points in the standings, especially useful for his team. It is worth highlighting the absence of the former Mercedes in PL1, thanks to the rookie’s return to the track Theo Pourchaire: “Austin was a difficult race to face, especially due to the post-race results which ended up awarding points to our rivals and the possibility of moving up slightly in the standings – he has declared – our hopes, however, are not lost: Despite the lack of pace, our car felt good and already last year we saw how Mexico adapted better to the track. We still have four races to get more points; the margins, as always, are minimal and only a couple of hundredths of a second can make the difference between Q2 and Q3: if we do our job well, we will be able to further improve our positions on the grid and make our way between opponents on Sunday.”
The advantages of the traditional weekend
Unlike the United States, the weekend it will not include the Sprint race formatand Alfa Romeo’s hard work to increase its performance was also highlighted by Zhou: “The Austin weekend was undoubtedly disappointing, as we expected to continue maximizing the potential of our recent upgrade package, but we failed to do so. – he added – the team has worked a lot in recent days to understand where we went wrong and we are confident that we can build something better this weekend; I believe we have the potential to do well and get back on our feet quickly. Last year I liked Mexico: the fans are definitely passionate and know how to organize a fiesta. Can’t wait to go back this weekend. We return to the standard format of the race weekend, with three practice sessions that will allow us to study the track and arrive prepared when necessary. By doing our duty, I am sure we will be able to get back into the points.”
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