Zhou retired due to Ferrari power plant failure

The French Grand Prix ended unsuccessfully for Alfa Romeo – the team did not earn points for the third weekend in a row. Valtteri Bottas finished fourteenth and Guanyu Zhou retired with six laps to go due to a malfunction of the Ferrari power unit.

Frederic Vasseurteam leader: “Before the start we were sure we would earn points, but unfortunately this didn’t happen.

Valtteri didn’t have the best start and then had to dodge incidents. By the end of the first lap, both our cars were at the end of the pack – from such positions it was difficult to recoup and get back into the top ten.

We had a good pace though – Zhou demonstrated this when he ended up on an empty track after a pit stop. But this was not enough to achieve anything more. As a result, one of our cars finished outside the top ten and the second stopped due to power plant problems – we didn’t expect such a result. In any case, we will have the opportunity to earn us back immediately in Hungary.

We will analyze the race to understand the reasons for what happened. This is especially important as the same warm weather is expected next weekend.”

Valtteri Bottas (14th): “The race turned out to be long, I sweated a lot, but I didn’t achieve anything! Of course you can learn something new in every race, so we have to draw conclusions from this weekend.

I lost a lot of positions in the beginning, after which it was difficult to recoup. Our race pace was not as good as we expected, although the car was a lot faster on the Medium tires.

I hope some of the novelties we will bring to Budapest will help us – I know the team is working hard on updates. To keep up with rivals now ahead of us in the Constructors’ Championship, we need to reach a higher speed. I’m sure the team can do it.”

Guanyu Zhou (retirement): “During 10-15 laps before the finish, the power plant problems started. I tried to switch to another mode, but in the end I had to end the fight in the race. The retirement happened for a technical reason – for the Budapest stage you have to invent everything to avoid a repeat of this in the future.

The rest of the race was not in our favor either. When we talk about the collision with Mick Schumacher, I defended myself while I was in the 11th corner. He tried to overtake me from the outside – at one point I didn’t have enough room in the corner, which led to contact. I think it’s hard to blame both of us, but it ruined my race.

Unfortunately this is happening, but we have to move forward. It certainly wasn’t a day we’ll remember, but the double events mean the team will have another chance next weekend to be competitive and get back where we should be.”