Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo is one of the most storied brand names in Formula 1 history.

History

The Italian marque secured the first ever world championship pole position and grand prix victory at Silverstone in 1950 with Giuseppe Farina. After winning every round that season aside from the Indianapolis 500, the marque could also stake claim to the first F1 world champion in the form of Farina.

The next year, Juan Manuel Fangio claimed the first of his five world championship titles with Alfa Romeo before the manufacturer left F1. They would eventually return to the world championship in the early 1980s but without anywhere near the same level of success.

The Alfa Romeo name made another return to the grid in 2019 after the Italian manufacturer struck a deal with the Sauber team to be entered under their name. The team hired 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen from Ferrari alongside Ferrari-affiliated Italian driver Antonio Giovinazzi, with Frederic Vasseur in the position of team principal.

The pair would race together for three seasons, and Alfa Romeo came eighth in the constructors’ championship in 2019 and 2020 before dropping to ninth in 2021. Raikkonen retired at the end of the season and the team parted ways with Giovinazzi, opting to bring in Valtteri Bottas from Mercedes and pair him with rookie Zhou Guanyu.

The new driver line-up enjoyed a strong start to the 2022 season, with solid points for Bottas putting them into the top five in the constructors’ championship. Despite falling back from their rivals as the season progressed, Alfa Romeo managed to cling onto sixth place in the standings on countback after Aston Martin drew level with them on points in the final round.

Ahead of the 2023 season, Alfa Romeo announced the partnership with the Sauber team would conclude at the end of the season and therefore its name would leave F1 again. Team principal Vasseur also departed the team to become Ferrari’s team principal, with former McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl named as the new CEO of the Sauber group. Alessandro Aluni Bravi was named as Alfa Romeo’s team representative to carry out media and sporting duties for the team during racing activities.

Cars

View pictures of Alfa Romeo’s F1 cars

Drivers

Complete list of Alfa Romeo F1 drivers

Headquarters

Alfa Romeo F1 Team,
Wildbachstrasse 9,
CH-8340 Hinwil,
Switzerland

Major team personnel

Sauber Group CEO – Andreas Seidl
Team representative (managing director) – Alessandro Aluni Bravi
Head of track engineering and operations – Xevi Pujolar
Sporting director – Beat Zehnder
Technical director – Jan Monchaux
Operations director – Axel Kruse
Head of aerodynamics – Evangelos Arvanitakis
Chief mechanic – Reto Camenzind
Team physiotherapist – Josef Leberer
Strategy engineer – Dhananjay Rithvik
Performance engineer – Andrea Benisi
Race engineer, Bottas – Alex Chan
Race engineer, Zhou – Jorn Becker

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