Alfa Romeo’s Frédéric Vasseur: “We were on course to have two cars in the points again”

Frédéric Vasseur admits it was disappointing for the Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN to leave Saudi Arabia empty handed after showing strong pace throughout the weekend at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

Valtteri Bottas was fighting for a top six position before an engine issue sent him into the pits to retire, while two penalties for Zhou Guanyu – the second no fault of his own – left him outside the top ten.

After a double-points finish during the opening weekend in Bahrain, it was looking as though the positive start to the year would continue in Saudi Arabia for the Hinwil-based team, but it was not to be, much to the disappointment of Team Principal Vasseur.

“It’s a disappointing end to an evening in which we showed so much pace,” said Vasseur.  

“We were on course to have two cars in the points again, but luck was not on our side tonight and we leave with nothing: Valtteri was stopped by a cooling issue when he was fighting for P6, while Zhou, who was recovering from the bottom after his car went into anti-stall after a contact with [Daniel] Ricciardo in turn two, would have been in the top ten if not for the drive-through penalty he was given.”

Vasseur says racing sometimes has the ability to ‘hurt’, but it will be important to take the positives from Saudi Arabia and carry those into the Australian Grand Prix in a bid to return to the points at Albert Park.

“It hurts, but this is racing, sometimes, and all we have to do is pull ourselves up and make sure we keep delivering tonight’s speed at the next races,” he concluded.