08/07/2023
NEWS STORY
Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake saw its Saturday efforts at the British Grand Prix hampered by issues which affected both cars, as intermittent rain influenced both FP3 and the qualifying session.
Valtteri Bottas set the 15th time, before a technical issue with car fuel forced him to stop his C43 on track, ruling him out of Q2 and ultimately resulting in his disqualification from the session. Teammate, Zhou Guanyu, spent the entirety of the third and final practice session outside of the car, as the team worked on solving a technical problem. Drying qualifying conditions and a lack of track time hindered his chances to make it past Q1, eventually setting the 18th time.
Despite this setback, the focus now, for the team both trackside and back in Hinwil, will be on working hard on analysing today's performances in order to avoid repetitions to today's problems, and work out a race plan to get back right in the mix in tomorrow's British Grand Prix.
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative: "We are undoubtedly disappointed, as we felt more than on previous days that we had the potential to do well. With Valtteri we showed we were comfortably into Q2, but a technical issue related to fuel forced him to stop, and to pull out of qualifying. Unfortunately, the problem meant we weren't able to submit the required fuel sample to the scrutineers, which lead to Valtteri being disqualified from the session. It's a pity as he had been doing an excellent job, and we are sorry to see his chances of a good qualifying session seriously damaged. For Zhou, it has been more difficult: he completely sat out of FP3 because of a car issue, and then wasn't able to move into Q2. It is in moments like these that the team needs to regroup and stick together, and push each other to further improve; we must aim to execute a better weekend. Tomorrow will be challenging, but we are not letting our heads down after today's result: we'll be ready to do our job, and carry out a good race to allow us to recover the ground we have lost."
Valtteri Bottas: "Today's results are very disappointing, as it seemed we actually had a real chance to make it into the top ten. I started to lose power on the final inlap, and then the engine stopped. We eventually figured out it was a technical issue with fuel in the car, and we are already working to address that and make sure it doesn't happen again. Sadly, this means we'll be starting at the back of the grid in the race, which is not where we would have deserved to be looking at our pace. Still, tomorrow will be a long day and, as always, the weather could add one more element of unpredictability: the car felt better than yesterday, and we have slightly better pace compared to previous events, so our aim will be to make the most out of it and fight as hard as we can through the field."
Zhou Guanyu: "I think we had the potential to improve our performance this weekend, but unfortunately, today has been quite tricky for our team and we couldn't maximise our chances. I had no running time during the final practice session because of a technical issue that the team promptly investigated and addressed, allowing me to get back on track ahead of qualifying. There, too, my running chances were limited, and I struggled with finding enough grip, eventually getting only one timed lap which wasn't enough to make it through to Q2. We are of course disappointed not to have had an actual shot at moving forward, but our main aim now will be to regroup and come prepared ahead of tomorrow."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Silverstone here.