Why did Alfa Romeo miss out in Monaco?
Highly anticipated in Monaco, the Alfa Romeo cars ultimately did not shine as hoped. Some explanations for this lack of performance can be found.
It was one of the most anticipated teams this weekend in the principality. Given the performance and characteristics of its C42, many saw the Swiss team coming to disrupt things on the Monaco track.
But several factors made the weekend on the Rock finally turn into damage limitation for Frédéric Vasseur’s team. The first and not the least of them is the amount of track time during the practice sessions. We missed the first free practice session with Valtteri and we also missed a part of the second free practice session with Zhou, regrets Xevi Pujolar, the team’s track engineering manager.
A lack of track time that penalized Alfa Romeo for the remainder of the weekend. Another factor is that the car didn’t seem as performant as expected, considering it was supposed to be very comfortable on this specific track. «
We seem to struggle a bit in every corner with a sharp curve or a rumble strip, so I think we have a small hint, » indicates Pujolar. «
What’s important for us is to understand why, maybe we’re missing something mechanically, the car doesn’t entirely match these corners. »
Pujolar hopes that the different layout in Baku will help Alfa Romeo to return to a more usual position in this very promising start of the season, aiming for a place at the top of the midfield for his team. In Baku, we will have more normal corners, there are a lot of 90° turns, […] so I hope it will be better for us.
Alfa Romeo, including a Valtteri Bottas at the top of his game, is fighting for a fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship. Alpine is just one point behind and is putting pressure, so it will be imperative to react in Azerbaijan in two weeks.
