Frédéric Vasseur admitted Alfa Romeo Racing’s Monaco Grand Prix weekend was compromised by their Qualifying performance on Saturday, with neither Kimi Räikkönen nor Antonio Giovinazzi being a points contender on Sunday.
Despite showing good pace during the free practice sessions, Räikkönen and Giovinazzi qualified down in fourteenth and fifteenth position, with the latter then being relegated to eighteenth thanks to a penalty for blocking another driver during the session.
Räikkönen ended a tough race to finish seventeenth, while Giovinazzi was the last of the classified finishers in nineteenth in an afternoon that saw him involved in contact with Williams Racing’s Robert Kubica at Rascasse that spun the Polish racer around and earned the Italian a time penalty.
Vasseur, the team principal at Alfa Romeo, admitted the team lost the chance of scoring points thanks to their poor performance in Qualifying, which left both Räikkönen and Giovinazzi with too much to do around a track notoriously difficult to pass on.
“It was a difficult weekend for us and our race was effectively compromised on Saturday,” said Vasseur. “At some stages, our cars were among the fastest on track, but Monaco being Monaco it meant there was no way to make up any ground.
“Despite the difference in pace, overtaking here was nearly impossible and even with a different strategy we finished the race close to where we started.
“Leaving with no points after the promise we had shown in practice is disappointing, but hopefully we can get back to scoring ways next time around in Canada.”
