Alfa Romeo’s Alessandro Alunni Bravi: “We were expecting to fight for the points”

Alessandro Alunni Bravi admitted it was disappointing to see Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake leave Saudi Arabia without breaking into the points-paying positions, with Zhou Guanyu ending thirteenth and Valtteri Bottas down in eighteenth.

Hopes had been high heading into the race at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit after qualifying twelfth and fourteenth that the team could make progress to score a top ten finish and add to the points that Bottas was able to score in the Bahrain Grand Prix.

However, Alunni Bravi, the Team Representative at Alfa Romeo, admits the pace was not as strong on race day as they were unable to breach the top ten, but the confidence within the team remains and he feels they can return to the pace they showed in Bahrain in the next outing in Australia, particularly with updates the C43-Ferrari due.

“Starting where we were on the grid, we were expecting to fight for the points, but, unfortunately, we weren’t able to finish in the top ten this time around,” said Alunni Bravi.  

“The team had a difficult weekend, and we weren’t able to be at the level for which we aimed: we’ll need to go back to base, analyse the data from this performance and understand where we’ve fallen short, and what steps we need to make to return to the level we were in Bahrain.

“We are confident we can make it there in Melbourne, where we will also bring some updates to further improve the performance of our C43.

“We need to keep working hard, of course: the season is long and the battle will be intense in each race.”