Several teams last weekend – during the Miami Grand Prix – proved to be out of step with this Formula 1 season, and Alfa Romeo Stake is certainly one of them.
Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu finished the race respectively in thirteenth and sixteenth place, with a not very brilliant performance.
On Saturday Bottas had secured the tenth position, managing to enter Q3 after a strong performance over a single lap, but reality kicked back in on Sunday as the race pace simply was not there.
The Finnish driver opened up on his performance to the media after the race:
“I didn’t definitely have the pace I had yesterday,” he said referring to qualifying.
“I think this reflects more the true pace I think we have at the moment, so need to keep working. I obviously tried to fight the best I could, but just couldn’t hold on.”
Then he commented about the upgrades that Alfa Romeo Stake should bring in Imola.
“They’re very important [and] definitely much, much needed. I look forward to seeing how they work, but we definitely need to keep pushing.”
Bottas’ teammate Zhou Guanyu commented on how hard for him was to keep a decent race pace and on how he’s looking forward to try the car with the new package at the Italian venue.
“[It was] better than last weekend, but still kind of here and affecting us, the performance, especially with a high-fuel car,” he said.
“It was very difficult for me to hold off the Aston behind and the guys around… even the Haas seems to have stronger pace than us. Hopefully with the upgrades we have for Imola it can bring us forward, but it was a difficult Sunday out there.
“We had amazing pace over one lap, and then today in the race, everything’s just different: track temperature, also the grip, the way you have to handle the tyres… It seems like we find it more tricky,” he concluded.
