Alfa Romeo team principal Frederic Vasseur is convinced his team are one of the biggest improvers in Formula 1 in 2021 following their performance in the season-opening race.
While the team were 1.2 seconds slower in Bahrain compared to last year, this was better than any other team bar Ferrari managed. Alfa Romeo are the eighth fastest team going into this weekend’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.Their rise up the competitive order has come despite losing pace as a result of rule changes that have made this year’s cars the slowest of the current generation of F1 machinery.
However Vasseur was cautious about their prospects at this weekend’s race. “We had a solid start of the season and that’s a good basis upon which to build, starting from this weekend,” he said.
“We have made a considerable step forward in performance, possibly one of the biggest across the field, and we are now in the midfield fight, but the top 10 is where you have to finish to bring home the points so that has to be our objective for Imola.”
The Alfa Romeo drivers qualified 12th and 14th in Bahrain, and finished 11th and 12th. Their most recent points score came at Imola last year, when Kimi Raikkonen finished ninth and Antonio Giovinazzi was 10th, but the team was slowest of all on pure lap time.
“Last year, we had our best result of the season here and we can take that as an encouragement, although we know the form we showed in 2020 is only a vague indicator of what we can expect this time around,” added Vasseur.
“We have seen how difficult it is to overtake around this circuit, so our Saturday performance will be crucial to make sure we get to the race in the best possible position to bring home points.”
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BasCB (@bascb)
13th April 2021, 20:27
They certainly looked like they got back into the midfield group instead of haning on somewhere far back.
Only Facts!
13th April 2021, 22:30
Alfa was already giving Ferrari some trouble in race trim last year. It seems that its chassis and aero were good enough.
This year, with a less restricted engine they could only do better. Raikkonen is going to have some fun chasing Vettel again.
Todfod (@todfod)
14th April 2021, 4:44
They did give Ferrari a hard time last year.. but that’s not really a case for their progress as much as it is Ferrari’s plight.
Todfod (@todfod)
14th April 2021, 4:48
They do look to have made a step forward.. and I’m guessing mostly due to the engine improvements. I think last year they were firmly in the lower midfield.. a little bit in no mans land as they never had the pace to fight the Mclarens, Renaults and Racing points, however they fought the Alpha Tauris and Ferraris on occasion. They did seem ahead of Haas and Williams though.
This year I think they’ll be fighting Aston Martin and Alpine really closely and maybe fighting Mclaren, Ferrari and Alpha Tauri on occasion. I think they’ve got the potential to move up from #8 in the WCC to #7 this season. Alpine look terrible this season and I think they’ll be able to capitalise on it.