In the round-up: Valtteri Bottas says that development speed is “one of the weaknesses” of his Alfa Romeo team
In brief
Bottas – Slow upgrade production a ‘weakness’ of Alfa Romeo
Valtteri Bottas says that improving how quickly Alfa Romeo produce upgrades for their car is a “high priority” for the team.
Alfa Romeo currently sixth in the constructors’ championship on 52 points, but have only scored a single point in the last eight races after scoring 51 over the first nine. Bottas admits the team have been unable to maintain the development pace of some of their fellow midfield teams.
“I think the rivals – like for example, McLaren and Alpine – they have made more development than us and they’ve had more constant upgrades than us,” said Bottas. “We still have some things to come, I think it’s probably maybe Austin or Japan, some things, but I guess that’s going to be more or less it.
“I think we were one of the very few teams in the beginning of the year who were at the weight limits. I think many teams were overweight, but as they’ve come down now, so maybe that has made an effect as well. We know one of our weaknesses is the production speed, which is a high priority for the team for the future. We’re definitely aware of that.”
No grid expansions for Formula 2, F3 – Michel
Formula 2 and FIA F3 CEO Bruno Michel says he does not believe either series will look at increasing their grid sizes beyond their current level.
Formula 2 currently has 22 cars on its grid, while the FIA Formula 3 championship races with 30 cars in each of its rounds. Asked if he would be open to adding more teams to the series should Andretti seek to set up junior teams, Michel said sees no need to expand the grids further.
“I don’t think it would be good for the championships to add new teams,” Michel said. “There are always changes of teams, teams that want to stop, and in that case we can find new shareholders for the teams. It happened many times in the past, with GP2 and F2 and it will continue.
“I think 30 cars in F3 and 22 cars in F2 is a very good figure. I’ve got many requests of teams that would like to join both F2 and F3, but I’m always saying the same thing. We need always to be sure that we have more drivers than seats, because if we have less drivers than the seats, then the teams are in trouble. I think having 30 cars in F3 is already a fantastic achievement and I don’t want to increase that at all. And 22 cars in…
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