Frederic Vasseur complains about the reliability of the Alfa Romeo
The leader of the Alfa Romeo team declared that the lack of reliability has cost a huge amount of points in the race for the constructor's championship. With a total of seven retirements, due to accidents or mechanical issues, it is difficult to disagree with Frédéric Vasseur...
The Alfa Romeo team is currently ranked sixth in the constructors’ standings. However, they have not managed to score a single point in the last four races, despite scoring points in 7 out of the first nine Grand Prix.
During this period of poor results, Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou fell victim to mechanical issues. The Finnish driver was forced to retire from the Silverstone Grand Prix due to a gearbox problem and also experienced a fuel system issue during the Hungary race. Zhou, on the other hand, retired from the French Grand Prix due to a power unit-related problem.
Despite these reliability issues, the team has already scored more points than last season by finishing ninth in the constructors’ championship.
The team leader Frédéric Vasseur believes that Alfa Romeo has made significant progress thanks to the new regulations and their duo of drivers, but they have been hindered by reliability issues.
We have taken a step forward. Especially in terms of pure performance. As always, it’s never just one thing. The Ferrari engine is better, we have made progress on the chassis. And I think Valtteri and Zhou are performing well.
« Now, in terms of results, we have had reliability issues. It has cost us a ton of points. We were in good positions in some Grand Prixs like in Jeddah and Silverstone. It is very damaging for us, and for the championship. But that’s how it is, it’s up to us to solve the problem for the second half of the season.
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Despite these missed opportunities due to accidents or mechanical problems, Vasseur believes that Alfa Romeo meets his expectations in the midfield battle.
I think nobody knew what would happen after the first day of testing. We were all a little surprised by the situation because it was a new car with no references.
We have all developed on our own, all while being completely blind. Surprised is not the word, because I knew we had made significant efforts for 2022, and I was expecting these kind of results. It’s a good feeling.
Alfa Romeo has a lead of 17 points over Haas, the other team with a Ferrari engine, and a 24-point lead over AlphaTauri with nine races remaining in the season.
