Hopes were high at Alfa Romeo on Saturday after the team got both their cars into Q3 last weekend for only the second time this year.
The situation reversed dramatically on Sunday, when for only the third time this season neither of their cars was among the first 13 finishers. What caused the turnaround in fortunes?Their afternoon began to unravel when Valtteri Bottas lined up to take the start from ninth on the grid. “We lost [gear] sync,” Alfa Romeo’s racing director Xevi Pujolar explained. “That’s something that we have sometimes, it happens. Unfortunately it happened at the wrong time.”
That compromised Bottas’ getaway and he lost three places. “So that didn’t help on lap one and in that first lap he was in P12, he was on hard tyres, it was really not ideal for us.”
“A few laps later we lost a position also with Zhou [Guanyu], so that was not good,” Pujolar continued. Zhou qualified 10th and although he gained one position from his team mate, he lost another to Pierre Gasly. Then on lap 15 he dropped out of the points as he was passed by Williams’ Alex Albon.
Both Alfa Romeo drivers started the race on the medium tyre compound and switched to hards when they made their first pit stops. When the race was red-flagged due to Kevin Magnussen’s crash, those who had more fresh tyres available could put on a second set of medium or hard compound tyres.
The Alfa Romeo pair stayed on the hard tyres they had pitted for under green flag conditions and therefore gained nothing. In Zhou’s case, he had to restart on a worn set of tyres, having been among the first to pit, on lap 21.
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The team had wanted to extend Bottas’s first stint as far as possible and he pitted on lap 31. That meant the race stoppage on lap 35 “was not such a big issue for Valtteri” but “it was bigger, bit more of an issue for Zhou because he had already some more laps on that tyre.” Although they expected a 50-lap stint on the hard tyres was possible, Zhou now faced a restart against drivers with newer hard rubber and others who returned to the faster medium tyre during the stoppage.
But a similar strategic disadvantage was encountered by other midfield drivers who had also pitted prior to the race being interrupted. Pujolar admitted the red flag “was not the main limitation for us today.”
“I think the bottom line is that our pace and ability to attack and defend was not good enough,” he said. “That’s the bottom line.”
After the restart Zhou was running 16th, Bottas 13th, the latter now having to contend with a new problem. His rear-left brake duct had ingested a visor tear-off, causing a deterioration in cooling at a venue where cars already run close to the limit due to its high altitude.
“We had some issues with Valtteri after the red flag, because we had the tear-off on the left-rear brake duct. And actually then trying to do some weaving, we managed to keep it under control,” Pujolar said.
“Other than that, without this tear-off issue, still temperatures were within the safety range for us. With the power unit and the brakes, yes, everything was running on the edge, on the limit all the time, but manageable.”
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Running in the queue headed by a slowing Nico Hulkenberg, Bottas still had an outside chance of salvaging a point. But then Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll dived to his inside at the hairpin in the Foro Sol and the pair collided at the exit. A five-second penalty for that incident dropped Bottas behind Zhou to 15th.
That series of setbacks put Alfa Romeo on a downwards trajectory not only in the race classification but in the constructors’ standings. AlphaTauri improved on their best score of the season for a second race in a row and passed them for eighth place.
With three races left before the end of the season, and Haas looking like a more serious threat following their upgrade, Alfa Romeo know they face a tough run in to the end of the championship.
“Today was a tough day, I would say,” Pujolar reflected. “We had a reasonable start of the weekend, at one timed lap we were good. Also the pace that we saw on high fuel on Friday was decent pace. Saturday was good, two cars in Q3. And today it was just not there.
“And now we can see AlphaTauri are strong, their race was really strong today. Williams got two points again. We still want to fight for this P7 [with Williams].
“Sao Paulo is our chance. I think if we cannot make progress in Sao Paulo, still maybe it’s possible, but I will say then it’s becoming very, very difficult.”
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JOA20
1st November 2023, 10:26
Alfa better give up on that 7th place. Williams and Albon are too far away for them to catch up. AlphaTauri may have a chance due to their current form.