In the round-up: Alfa Romeo’s head of trackside engineering Xevi Pujolar explains the gains Alfa Romeo made from their upgraded floor.
In brief
Alfa Romeo have pace but need points
Alfa Romeo have only scored once in the last 10 grands prix, but the team believes their upgraded floor has propelled them back up the competitive order.
Both of the team’s cars had the pace to qualify in the top 10 with the new floor, but a spin for Valtteri Bottas and an 18th place starting position for Zhou Guanyu meant the team failed to score and are now only point ahead of Aston Martin.
“It’s a step that we were expecting, it’s another small step in the right direction,” head of trackside engineering Xevi Pujolar said.
“That brought us close to the top of the midfield. We saw in qualifying that we have both cars coming in Q3 level, and then the lap was deleted for Zhou because he had very slight track limits in turn 12, and it was enough to delete his lap time.
“We had only one session, we checked that everything was working as expected because FP2 was the Pirelli test, and we could see that everything was working within expectations in terms of the [upgrade].”
A gust of wind was cited for Bottas’s race-ending spin, and Zhou made it up to 11th place.
“It’s a bit frustrating because the performance was there this weekend with the upgrade. We had potentially yesterday both cars in Q3,” Pujolar added.
“But still this track is possible to overtake and things can happen during the race. So we were quite optimistic to have both cars fighting for the points. It didn’t end up as we expected.”
He admitted Alfa Romeo “struggled a bit too much” with tyre management, but “need to stay positive because we have got a good package now and both drivers are performing very well”.
Tilke’s latest circuit under construction
Flatrock Motorsports Park, a new circuit in US state Tennessee that has been designed by Tilke Engineers and Architects, began construction today.
The track will feature a 5.63-kilometre private Member’s Club layout and a 4.3km grand prix layout and is planned to be completed in the first half of 2023.
The venue also plans to open its own karting track early next year which would be capable of hosting international competitions. Flatrock will be built in phases, with the grand prix loop being added once the main layout is constructed, and other future developments will include an on-site hotel and…
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