Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake had its work cut out at the Suzuka Circuit, as opening-lap incidents compromised the team’s drivers’ races from the get-go. Valtteri Bottas saw his race come to an early end after just a handful of laps after he sustained damage in two on-track collisions, which forced the team to retire his car.
Teammate Zhou Guanyu was affected by the fracas on the opening lap and mostly drove a recovery race after he was required to pit to change his front wing – managing to climb up to 13th place and recovering six positions on track by the chequered flag.
It was a challenging Japanese Grand Prix for the Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake: the team will now make its return to its base in Hinwil to regroup and analyse the performances of the Asian double-header to come back in competitive form in Doha at the beginning of October.
Valtteri Bottas (car number 77):
It’s been a pretty eventful yet short race for me today: I had a great start right off the line, but then I found myself caught between two cars, a Williams and an Alpine, going into Turn 1. There wasn’t enough space, resulting in a collision, which caused a puncture on my front right tyre. We immediately pitted, and I went for a nose change as well; then, just after the end of the Safety Car, I tried to overtake Sargeant from the outside and made sure to leave enough space – unfortunately, he locked up and ended up taking me out. We pitted again to check the damage on the car and found it wasn’t possible to go further. Today just wasn’t meant to be for us, which is a shame, as I reckon our car had the potential to do well at the start of the weekend. Unfortunately, this back-to-back didn’t go how we expected: now, it will be essential to reset, come back ready in Doha in a couple of weeks, and tackle the remainder of the season.
Zhou Guanyu (car number 24):
I had a perfect start, and I was attempting to charge my way through the pack and gain some positions. Then, four cars touched in front of me, and a rather big piece of carbon got stuck in my front wing. From that moment onwards, my race was compromised, and I had to take it easy to avoid damaging the car. Performance-wise, I think our pace today was alright, likely quicker than the Alpha Tauris, which seemed to have a more competitive package this weekend. In terms of our package, we sure made a further improvement from Singapore, and it will be essential to analyse the data we have gathered. In general, I reckon our speed now allows us to fight just outside the top ten, and it will be fundamental to keep working towards improving that. Unfortunately, this weekend hasn’t been the best: my qualifying chances were compromised yesterday, and ultimately, my race. We will head back to Europe, get some rest after a challenging double-header, and then work hard to prepare for the races ahead.
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative:
There are still some positives to take with us from this weekend, although we came back from Suzuka with no points: we had a reasonable race pace today compared to our direct competitors; Zhou was able to perform a solid race despite having been forced to pit to change his front wing because of damage. After the opening lap accident, Zhou regained positions on track thanks to a two-stop strategy, which saw him running on soft tyres for most of the race and then changing for hard in the final section, ultimately crossing the line in 13th place. After a perfect start in which he gained two spots, Valtteri was squeezed between Albon and Ocon and forced to an early pit to change the damaged parts on his C43. Even though he recovered thanks to the Safety Car period, Valtteri’s race ended when Sargeant took him out: the damage on the car was too heavy, and he couldn’t continue. Still, our team proved again to recover from less-than-ideal qualifying placements, so we must look at the next races with optimism: we are not too far from our direct competitors, as it is often just a matter of hundredths of a second. If we work at the top of our performance from FP1 on Friday, we can extract more performance from our package and take that extra step forward to get back into the top ten.
Alfa Romeo F1 Team best pictures:
Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 17, Japanese Grand Prix, Saturday 23rd September 2023. Suzuka, Japan.
Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 17, Japanese Grand Prix, Sunday 24th September 2023. Suzuka, Japan.
Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 17, Japanese Grand Prix, Sunday 24th September 2023. Suzuka, Japan.
Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 17, Japanese Grand Prix, Sunday 24th September 2023. Suzuka, Japan.
Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 17, Japanese Grand Prix, Sunday 24th September 2023. Suzuka, Japan.
Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 17, Japanese Grand Prix, Sunday 24th September 2023. Suzuka, Japan.
