F1 | Alfa Romeo, difficult Friday for Bottas: "We are not where we would like"

Friday uphill forAlfa Romeo a Jeddah. Valtteri Bottas e Zhou Guangyu found themselves literally at the bottom of the standings in the first two free practice sessions, the performances of the Bahrain. The team of Hinwil he will have to work hard to try to bring the two cars back to the top of the standings and there has already been no shortage of various set-up tests. Bottas, eighteenth and twentieth respectively in the first and second free practice sessions, remains confident: la C43 he showed his potential already in the first round of the season and with a little patience, the team can also aspire to Q3.

“On the first outing with the car everything seemed fine to me: there were no problems with the set-up. We carried out several tests today, modified the levels of the wings and the set-up in general and now we just have to sit down, analyze everything and understand what the best choices are – explained Valtteri – obviously we are not where we would like, let alone at the levels shown in Bahrain, where we were the fifth best team: we need to find a little more speed and make some steps forward for qualifying. But it's only Friday and I'm sure we can make it happen. The competition is tight, I expected it, but even with a small improvement we could gain positions in qualifying. We will work hard, I don't think Q3 is that far away, but we will do our best tomorrow."

Similar hopes for Zhou Guanyu, who is also struggling with various car balance tests. The Chinese was nineteenth in FP1 and managed to improve a little, climbing up to sixteenth position in the second free practice session. He's not yet good enough for Q3, but there's still one session left to go all out.

“It was a challenging day: we are not that far from our rivals in terms of race pace, but I must say that our expectations were a little higher – revealed the Chinese – we tried different solutions, made changes and I drove a car substantially different between one session and another: I had to adapt, but now the team has all the data necessary to make the right decisions on the set-up. Obviously, our target is still Q3, we will see what the true potential of myself and the car is, especially when the margins are so thin. There is still work to do tonight, but I'm confident we can fight for good positions in qualifying."