Robert Kubica, Alfa Romeo, Circuit de Catalunya, 2021

First pictures: Kubica gives Alfa Romeo’s new C41 its debut on track

2021 F1 season

Posted on

| Written by

Alfa Romeo has revealed the first photograph of its new car for the 2021 F1 season running on track.

The C41 was launched on Monday in Poland. Test driver Robert Kubica was first to get behind the wheel, covering 29 laps of the short loop at the Circuit de Catalunya in a filming day today.

“It’s always a special moment to be the first to drive a new car,” said Kubica. “Today’s focus was on making sure everything worked as planned and to ensure all systems were functional, so performance was not an objective, but the thrill of driving a car like this isn’t diminished. The car felt good and I am looking forward to driving it once again later in the season.”

As is common across the field, Alfa Romeo’s new car is largely based on the chassis raced by the team in 2020. “The C41 is the result of a very unusual situation in Formula 1, in which the regulations have made us unable to develop an entire new car for this year,” said technical director Jan Monchaux.

“For this reason, our 2021 car shares a lot of common parts with the C39, with the exception of those which the regulations forced us to change – such as the floor – and the nosecone, in which we invested our two development tokens.

“This means we will know the car much better than usual when we get to testing, but it’s still going to be crucial to make the most of those three days to verify that reality matches our expectations and to get to know the new tyres. We are ready for the new season and we can’t wait to see our new car on track.”

The car is due to run next in pre-season testing which begins at the Bahrain International Circuit on April 12th.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Pictures: Kubica drives Alfa Romeo C41 at Catalunya

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2021 F1 season

Browse all 2021 F1 season articles

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

7 comments on “First pictures: Kubica gives Alfa Romeo’s new C41 its debut on track”

  1. That looks so much better on track than in the studio pics. Love the new livery. Four leaf clover just finishes it.

    1. Yes, this is a pretty elegant red, I like it more as well. The studio pics had so much postprocessing, just look at the face of the drivers, and u can see how drastic the lights and shadows were. Looking at the drivers face it was pretty obvious and slightly funny. You know, the serious, but often quite funny Kimi, with those dramatic shades on his face, almost made me laugh. Kubica was a bit sad sight, as he looks quite aged with those exaggerated shadows, considering how promising talent one day he was. So PR-wise those pictures were not exactly great imo.

      I was in the let’s see the car at real ambient lightning, because that was just too much, I’m definitely not in the let’s HDRize everything camp. It’s obvious that these on track pictures were taken at a cloudy day, but now I’m not that sad for changing their last season’s eye candy livery.

      1. Kubica is 5 years and 2 months younger than kimi. He has always had an old man face even as a teenager, but is much more fit these days with lots of cycling than his first f1 career.

    2. Just wanted to say the same @cduk_mugello – the livery works very well out in the open.

  2. I think it looks horrible. Like no-one really cared and just put some stickers on.

    1. Agreed. It’s quite messy.

      Last seasons looked much nicer, moving the red down lower is a shame too, less visible.

      1. Yeah, very messy and over complicated

Comments are closed.