In Melbourne, for the first time of the season, Alfa Romeo drivers failed to get away from the first part of qualifying on full force – Guanyu Zhou posted the seventeenth fastest time, Valtteri Bottas finished the session nineteenth. The team is expected to be dissatisfied with their starting positions.
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Sauber Group Managing Director and Alfa Romeo F1 Team spokesperson: “We positively assessed the results of the training and the work of new products, which is why we are naturally disappointed that two cars did not pass the first part. We need to analyze the telemetry to understand what has changed in the car between third practice and qualifying and to come up with the best race plans possible.
The track is not exactly conducive to overtaking, but we will try to regain as many positions as possible. The gaps are minimal, so we expect to be able to compete. With a good start and the right strategic decisions, we can look forward to something in the race.”
Guanyu Zhou (17th): “Strange session. In the third practice session the car was fast and during qualifying the behavior changed dramatically. It’s a pity that we didn’t perform well, but I think I did my best, but I didn’t manage to play a few tenths more to get into the second part.
The team didn’t change the settings much after qualifying practice, but the differences in the behavior of the car were so noticeable that I had to adjust the driving style.
When it comes to racing, you never know what could happen. I would prefer to start higher, but we can still try to do our best, develop the right strategy and gain back a few positions.
Valttery Bottas (19th): “The new products we’ve brought to Melbourne seem to be working as we expected, so I won’t deny that we expected more from qualifying. Of course, the results do not meet expectations and many questions remain after the session.
Apparently we didn’t have enough speed and on top of that I was still in traffic on the last lap and couldn’t get the most out of the tyres. We are far from ideal starting positions, but the team will sort out what we did wrong and regroup for tomorrow’s race.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
