Ugly, heavy, too wide, already old compared to the competitors. These are all adjectives that the Alfa Romeo C42 has been told since the first surprise test carried out in Fiorano, on a day when its then camouflage livery hid the shapes even better thanks to a leaden sky, to a gray and anonymous day. .
Then, however, as soon as it was time to get serious, the too soon mistreated Swiss single-seater changed its skin. Wearing the Alfa Romeo livery, the C42 managed to finish the Top 10 with both Valtteri Bottas and rookie Guanyu Zhou in the first round of the season, the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Sixth Bottas, tenth Zhou. Two cars in the points had not happened since the 2020 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, with the ninth and tenth places taken by Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi. This result, however, has even more value not only because it arrived with an unprecedented pair of drivers, but also because the C42 is the new car designed in Hinwil on the dictates of the new technical regulations that came into force just this year.
It is a fact that 5 out of 6 Ferrari-powered cars finished the race in the points. Only Mick Schumacher was unable to do so, however, finishing just outside, 11th. The Bahrain Grand Prix immediately confirmed a fact: the Ferrari power unit has at least eliminated the gap from the other reference engines.
“It’s really nice to see all of this.. I think there is practically no more difference between the engines. So it’s important to have that power for us”, declared Valtteri Bottas at the end of the race.
Alfa Romeo: Bottas is a stimulus for everyone
However, there is something that in the first months of 2022 it did and is still making a difference as far as Alfa Romeo is concerned. This is what brought Valtteri Bottas to Hinwil. Having been the number 2 Mercedes driver for several years, the Finn has brought to Alfa Romeo a mentality and a way of working that have been a stimulus for the whole environment.
Frédéric Vasseur, Alfa Romeo Racing team principal, underscored what Valtteri did and did well: “I don’t want to talk about what he is doing on the track, but in terms of motivation, leadership and so on he is doing an excellent job” .
“I also think for Zhou who helped Joe a lot over the weekend to trust him, to be positive with him. He started the debrief. [dopo la qualifica] congratulating Joe on Q2, [dicendo] ‘It’s an incredible result, I was shitting my pants in the first qualifying ten years ago’ “.
“And I think that has given Joe confidence too. And it is, I think, a team effort. And in the end that Valtteri is able to understand this is really useful.”
Alfa Romeo: departures are still a problem
In all this flurry of compliments and surprise for the result obtained in Sakhir, however, an aspect that has already emerged since the Barcelona tests and repeated in the first race of the season cannot be overlooked.
The C42s started badly. Very bad. Especially the number 77, that of Bottas. A route so bad that it almost nullified Sakhir’s great Saturday qualifying. Fortunately for the Finn, the retirements of the Red Bulls and Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri made this problem irrelevant.
This, however, remains and must necessarily be the subject of discussion to ensure that such problems do not occur more (or almost) during the season.
“At the start I skated a lot. I was not confident when I went to the grid, because 50% of the starts made in the tests were very bad. So it’s an area the team has to work on. At the start I skated, actually cooking the rear tires. I had the same problem even after shifting into third gear. At that point, in the first stint of the race, I was an easy target for everyone. “
Bottas then explained that this problem at the start is of a mechanical nature: “It’s a mechanical thing. Sometimes we have a vibration of the clutch. It happens in the middle of the starts. When it happens it’s very easy to have bad traction. This is one of the things. on our list, because we absolutely have to improve it. “
Alfa team principal Frédéric Vasseur himself stressed how much work the team still has to do to improve things and exploit the car’s full potential: I don’t want to be focused on others, but I know perfectly well what we are doing. I know what we have in the house and the good feeling we have now, I don’t want to worry about others, and I have enough to do with my boys. We just have to focus on your work and develop the car … We have some room for improvement. It is clear that we made some mistakes over the weekend, which we have to resolve, but I am more than satisfied with the work everyone has done, and it will be a huge boost. “
Xevi Pujolar, head of the trackside engineering at Alfa Romeo, had his say on the problems at the start and on the current package of the C42: “In terms of development the factory is pushing a lot to bring new updates, but already with this package we have now. , as you said, reliability was not ideal only in the first Barcelona test.
“In the second test he was improving, but we still got some margins here and there, and we can go faster than that, I think for Jeddah we will try to push more, then we should be able to earn a little more in terms of that. the performance. Now the center of the pack is all very compact and we also have to see how the competitors react next week. But I think we can fight for the same positions as Sakhir. “
Regarding the problems at the start, he added: “We are still facing some problems with starting with this new car. We have already made progress, but we are still a little behind on this sector. And both cars in Sakhir started badly. “.
“The problem wasn’t just starting, but also trying to get positions and avoid crashes on the first lap. So that’s definitely an area to discuss, and we’ll have to take some action and try to understand a little more, see how we can fix it, or try to mitigate as much as possible for next week, because we don’t have that much time to do it. “
Alfa Romeo: aim to take the Haas
Among the Ferrari-powered, Haas F1 also made sparks. Returning Kevin Magnussen seemed to have been driving the VF-22 for years, not that he had a few hours of experience behind the wheel of the American car.
The fifth place obtained by the Dane, after a solid and fast race as far as the center of the group is concerned, is the clear proof of how much the VF-22 was even better than the C42. Bottas noticed this aspect, which is why he targeted Guenther Steiner’s team.
“I think Haas are faster than us at the moment. I think if Kevin hadn’t had the problem yesterday, I couldn’t have matched his lap time. Based on his time in Q2. And in the race, I think, they were pretty strong. . So, yes, they are ahead of us and they are our target. “
Alfa Romeo: Vasseur wants his feet firmly on the ground
A swallow does not make a spring, just as a race cannot be taken into consideration as the only proof to have enough data in hand to feel strong in a competitive car everywhere.
This Vasseur knows this well and that is why he preached great calm within the team. Starting well in the season is very important, especially in a new era like the one that Formula 1 started right in Sakhir, but if the team wants to have the ambitions to compete at higher levels than in the last two seasons, it will have to continue working to improve. the car and the confidence of the drivers with it.
“I think part of my job is also to calm all expectations when we are doing well and also to push when we are not so well, you know what I mean? It is not because today we are P6 and P10 that we are world champions” .
“We just have to be focused on what we are doing, on the updates that we will bring to the next two races, and that we have some room for improvement at the start, and so, but we are completely focused on that. Then it’s your job, not mine. [analizzare le prestazioni della squadra]”.
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