16/06/2022
NEWS STORY
Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN heads to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal for the ninth round of the 2022 Formula One World Championship, the Canadian Grand Prix.
It's a special weekend for the team: racing in one of the sport's most iconic venues for the first time in three years, on a weekend when heritage and modern racing meet. As Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN competes in Canada, indeed, the automotive brand's historic cars will take to the roads of the 1000 Miglia, for the re-enactment of one of motorsport's most legendary races.
It's this connection between a kind of racing steeped in history and tradition and the constant push for innovation that best embodies the spirit of our team. With a heritage-rich brand name recalling triumphs of yesteryear and the modern Formula One cars representing the world's most efficient and exciting machines, there is a red thread linking motorsport, competition and innovation as intrinsic to our DNA.
Pushing around the tight confines of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Canada or racing like the heroes of yore at the 1000 Miglia in Italy, racing is racing and we are part of it, aiming for success - as we've always been, as we will always be.
Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal: "Baku was a challenging weekend for the team, but these are the circumstances in which you see the real mettle of a group. Nobody, neither in the garage nor at home, let their heads drop: what you saw was an immediate reaction to bounce back from the disappointment. We are determined to come to Canada to prove that last week's result is just an outlier and I am confident we will do just that. We have plenty of positives to work with - we saw excellent pace with Zhou and we know it would have brought us points had we finished the race. We will aim for a clean weekend and to get back on track immediately."
Valtteri Bottas: "It's great to be back in Canada after such a long time. This is a city that really embraces Formula One and it's always a pleasure to come here and see the way the fans welcome us. Last week was a difficult race for us and we have spent the few days since we were in Baku looking back at the data to understand what went wrong. We have taken in-depth steps to make sure we start this weekend with a clean slate and can return to the levels of competitiveness we have enjoyed since the start of the season. Montreal is a track we know fairly well, although it is the first time we race here with the new cars, so we can aim to get down to business straight from FP1."
Zhou Guanyu: "The benefit of back-to-back races is the opportunity to get on track immediately after a disappointing event and this is the approach I have for the weekend. I am focusing on the positives from Baku: my performance in Q1 and the way I was running my race until the DNF are the starting points for Canada and this is what I am going to build on. The team has worked hard to understand the issue we had and we come to Montreal to get the result that evaded us last week. I have never raced here, so I don't know this track, but it's one of the great venues of Formula One and I've watched it on TV many times: it's a circuit where races can be real classics and I can't wait to be in the car on Friday."