Alfa Romeo is trying to solve its performance problems in qualifying
Alfa Romeo had two difficult weekends in Monaco and Baku, with only two small points to show for. The Swiss team encountered issues with the soft tires during qualifying, which they are working on resolving.
The latest races have been less successful for Alfa Romeo after a very promising start to the season. The Swiss team has only scored two points in the past two Grand Prix thanks to Valtteri Bottas, who finished ninth in Monaco.
Especially Alfa Romeo is in great difficulty in qualifying. In Monaco, Guanyu Zhou started last and Valtteri Bottas only managed 12th. Again, the same story in Baku where neither of the two drivers managed to qualify for Q3 (Zhou 14th, Bottas 15th). This is a problem that the team explains by the difficulty in understanding and using the soft tires optimally.
During the last two races, the soft tyres were the C5 compound, which is the softest in the Pirelli range. But once again, these same tyres will be used in Montreal, which could greatly handicap the two Alfa Romeo drivers. The team is working to enable them to regain better positions on the grid.
« Some competitors are capable of extracting more performance during the first timed lap, whereas for us, during the first lap, we struggle more. » explains Xevi Pujolar, the track engineering manager of the Swiss team.
« We put more emphasis on the second fast lap. It’s something we’ve been working on, and I believe we will reach Q2, but then we need to make more progress. I think for Montreal, we see no reason why we shouldn’t be at the top. » he continues.
We’ll see if the changes made by Alfa Romeo bear fruit in Saturday night’s qualifying session (10pm).
