Alfa Romeo drivers did not earn any points in the Austin sprint. The team’s best result was Guanyu Zhou’s sixteenth place, but the Chinese driver received a five-second penalty for overtaking Kevin Magnussen off track, and after adding time he dropped to seventeenth in the sprint protocol and let his teammate Valtteri Bottas go. forward.
Despite the low result, Alfa Romeo believes the car’s potential will allow it to finish in the top ten in Sunday’s race.
Valtteri Bottas (16th): “In qualifying for the sprint the biggest problem was the inability to get a clear lap and get the Medium tires to work. In the sprint I felt we were a little more competitive – I could fight with my opponents. This is positive for Sunday’s race as I will start from a higher position.
If we manage to do everything right during the race, we have a chance to win points. In the sprint I was quite happy with the pace and the tires performed better than expected. So I’m looking forward to the race.”
Guanyu Zhou (17th): “In the sprint the main task was to understand the behavior of the tires over the long distance and to collect this information before the race. Obviously I have to improve, because over the long distance I had more problems with the pace compared to my opponents. We will analyze everything, but we have potential.
In Sunday’s race I expect high degradation of the rubber, so this must be taken into account when choosing a strategy. However, I think we have the potential to fight for points. We need to study the telemetry carefully to understand what we can do to improve the 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.
