Alfa Romeo is currently sixth in the Formula 1 constructors’ world championship but has failed to score a point in the last four races, after finishing in the top ten in seven of the first nine rounds of the course.
In this string of poor results, both Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou have been affected by reliability issues, with the Finn retiring at the British Grand Prix due to a gearbox problem and the Hungarian GP due to a gearbox failure. the fuel system, while the Chinese retired in France due to problems with its power unit.
Despite reliability issues and sometimes bad luck as well, the team has already far surpassed its 2021 points harvest, a season in which it finished ninth.
As a result, the Vasseur team principal believes they have improved their performance considerably with the new F1 technical regulations and also thanks to their new driver line-up of Bottas and Zhou , but regrets that they have been held back by their unreliability.
“I think we’ve made a step forward. We made good progress in terms of pure performance, because of the different changes,” Vasseur said.
“As always, it’s never based on one thing. I think the Ferrari engine has also made a step forward. We have also done a very good job on the chassis side. And I think Valtteri and Zhou are performing great. Overall It’s a good step forward.”
“Now, related to the results, we also had some reliability problems. That has cost us a fortune in terms of points, in some races we were in very good shape, like Jeddah or Silverstone,” added the Alfa Romeo driver.
“It’s a real shame for us and for our position in the championship. But it is, and we just have to work to fix it in the second part of the season.”
Even despite the missed opportunities due to accidents and mechanical problems, Vasseur still believes that Alfa Romeo is living up to its expectations.
“I think no one knew what the first qualifying result would be on the first day of testing,” he said. “We were all a bit surprised with the situation, because they were completely new cars and without references.
“We all developed our cars on our own and were completely blind. But no, surprised is not the right word, because I really knew we had done a great job, I was expecting something like that. It’s definitely a good feeling.”
The Swiss outfit holds a 17-point lead over nearest rival and fellow Ferrari client Haas, while AlphaTauri trails Alfa Romeo by 24 points with nine rounds to go at the end of this season.
