Photo credits: Alfa Romeo F1
Not the best Saturday for Alfa Romeo last weekend, as Zhou Guanyu’s C43 came to a halt for a power issue in the opening minutes of qualifying that forced him to drop out as early as Q1. With his teammate Valtteri Bottas starting from P14, things didn’t look too promising for the Swiss in rainy Montreal.
Things, however, took a turn for the better during Sunday’s race, allowing the team to bring home a point from the Canadian Grand Prix.
A P10 on the finish line for Bottas, who made the most of a one-stop strategy and the help of his teammate who was called into the pits twice.
“We thought it would have been on the edge between one and two pit stops,” explained head of trackside engineering Xevi Pujolar after the race.
“Then there was the Safety Car and everyone came into the pits and switched to Hards, that’s when we feared that – if everyone would have tried doing what Albon was doing [ a one-stop strategy under the Safety ] – it would have been a problem for Valtteri because he would have ended up behind a train of cars.”
The turning point came when a part of the midfield came into the pits for a tyre change moments before George Russell caused the Safety to be deployed: it was then that Alfa decided to stop Zhou earlier than planned.
Fresh tyres for Zhou meant other cars had to stop twice as well to be able to defend, allowing Bottas to gain some advantage on them.
“That is why – as soon as we saw Stroll and Hulkenberg come in – we decided to stop Zhou as well, in order to have more cars on a two-stops strategy,” said Pujolar.
“This way, as a team, we put Zhou in that position forcing the other cars to follow in his footsteps and do the same, letting Valtteri take a breather. The goal was to have at least one car inside the points. The Hards were quite strong so it was possible.”
Bottas started the race on the hardest compound and switched to Mediums halfway through the race, only struggling with tyre degradation in the final laps, when both Lando Norris and Lance Stroll got him. Norris’ penalty, however, meant he only lost one position in the closing stages of the race, P9 to Stroll.
A position lost very last minute, as Bottas stretched the limits of his Alfa on the straight leading to the final chicane, leaving the car with less power in the very last stint before the finish line.
“He used a lot of power on the back straight only to protect from Stroll. We have to delve into the details, surely it is frustrating losing in the last few meters. That’s how it is,” he said.
Could have gone better, but still a good weekend for the team who earned a point of advantage over Haas who is right behind them in the costrunctor’s standings and allows Alfa to head to Austria in P7.
“All in all, I think it was a good job from us starting from where we did and finishing in P10. Now we are seventh in the championship, so at the end of the day we take it as a positive outcome.”
