Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN brought their pre-season to an end at the Bahrain International Circuit, after completing 150 laps on the final day. This total was the most the team managed to complete across any single day, they did face late issues though.
The team missed the final forty minutes of running at Bahrain, after a late technical issue during Valtteri Bottas’ running. Rookie Guanyu Zhou was at the wheel of the C42 in the morning session, the Chinese driver racked up 82 laps with the best of those being a 1:33.959.
Zhou was pleased to end his first ever Formula 1 pre-season with a strong day, he feels more than ready now for the season to commence.
“It feels good to finish pre-season testing with a strong day: I feel we made another step forward. It’s nice to see constant progress from the team every day and to be able to get some proper short and long runs on a day when it all came together.
“I had my busiest day in the car and I was also able to go through the procedures that we’ll use during next week’s race weekend: there’s a lot for me to take in tonight but I can be satisfied with the work we have done in pre-season. The team did a great job making me feel at ease and giving me the tools to prepare properly. I feel I am fully ready for the start of the season.”
“I am ready, we as a team are ready and I can’t wait to race” – Valtteri Bottas
Valtteri Bottas was unfortunate to miss the final forty minutes of the day, a technical issue brought his pre-season to a premature end. Despite the late issue, the Finnish driver still completed 68 laps with the best of those being a 1:32.985.
Bottas believes himself and the team learnt more during the test in Bahrain than they did at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
“A very positive day up until the issue that stopped us at the end of the day. We definitely learnt a lot more here in Bahrain than in Barcelona: there are still a few little issues to be solved but I can really say that the car’s potential is there and, by the end of the day, I was really starting to enjoy it.
“We need to make sure we address all issues and make sure they don’t happen again, but I am confident we will take the next few days to do so. Looking at our performance, we learnt a lot about our car and we will keep learning next week. I am ready, we as a team are ready and I can’t wait to race.”