Alfa Romeo have certainly quietly disappointed in the F1 2023 season to date. After such a strong start to 2022, things have fallen away since then.
The British Grand Prix compounded that feeling for the Swiss team, walking away from Silverstone after their sixth pointless race of the season.
With these results of P12 for Valtteri Bottas and P15 for Zhou Guanyu, this now drops them a place in the Constructors’ Championship thanks to Alex Albon’s 8th for Williams at Silverstone. They’re 2 points behind Haas and 7 points in front of AlphaTauri for 9th overall.
Photo credit: Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake
While Alfa Romeo’s new upgrade package has improved the car, it hasn’t been enough for them to make a dent into their competitors’ places and move up the order. They won’t have new updates in Hungary and Spa.
Bottas hopes the team back at the factory can deliver new bits. Otherwise this campaign is going to be one to forget.
“Definitely we made a step, but also other teams made steps, that’s the name of the game so we need to find more. We don’t have anything coming in the next 2 events, but after the summer break. The guys and girls really need to work really hard in the factory to bring some new bits.”
On the battle for P7 in the Constructors’ Championship, Bottas is hopeful that the Hungaroring will see Williams come back towards them at a tight and twisty venue.
“Very different track to this one. Less top speed than here. I think Williams probably in theory shouldn’t be as strong there as they were here, but we’ll see. We approached the weekend like any other — maximum preparation and then we’ll see.”
Bottas seems to have accepted the fate of the car this year and how it’s underperformed versus their expectations. When will Alfa Romeo start focusing on 2024?
“I think at this point we’re approaching halfway of the season, and we’ve not been able to really move up the order. At some point we need to decide when it’s going to be better to just focus on next year — I am sure the discussions will be made soon.
“We were expecting to be better than last year, but we just didn’t find enough during the winter and in the beginning of the season so far. We’re not meeting targets we set for ourselves, now we just need to work on it.”
Photo Credit: Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake
On the other side of the garage, Zhou is hoping for a smoother weekend in Hungary compared to Silverstone.
“I think it will be the same car as here, so I hope we can analyse that in the short week of time to make sure we have something that’s a bit stronger. This weekend was quite a messy one on my side. Basically there was a lot of limitation during the race because of small issues to make sure everything is right and we can maybe fight a little more ahead.”
Photo Credit: Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake
