Jan Monchaux, the Technical Director of the Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN, says the unveiling of the C42-Ferrari on Sunday is a milestone on the long road of design and development since the team switched their attention to the 2022 season early on during the 2021 season.
The C42 ran in a camouflage livery during the first pre-season test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya prior to the official unveiling of the 2022 livery design on Sunday, with race drivers Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou in attendance alongside test driver Robert Kubica.
Monchaux acknowledges that the development curve will be very steep thanks to the new regulations, with teams up and down the pit lane looking for every little bit of advantage to eek out as much performance as they can from their new cars.
And he says this will be no different at Alfa Romeo as they look to put their disappointing performances from 2021 – as well as a below par test in Spain – behind them and become genuine points contenders this season.
“As we unveil the C42, it may feel like the start of a new season: we know, however, that this launch is just a milestone in a much longer journey in which our whole staff in Hinwil has invested so much time, resource and energies,” said Monchaux.
“Designing and building this car has been a huge undertaking and we can be proud of what we have achieved, but our work is not finished.
“As always in a new rules cycle, the development curve will be at its steepest this season and we need to continue extracting new performance out of the C42 to make the progress we have set as an objective for ourselves.”