Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake Technical Director Jan Monchaux reflected on a successful weekend of running at Bahrain International Circuit for pre-season testing ahead of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.
Alfa Romeo completed 401 laps between their two drivers, Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas, across the weekend. The team also took the third fastest time of testing as a whole, which may be a source of encouragement in spite of the caveat of the testing conditions in play.
“We can be satisfied about these three days of solid work. The most important thing when having limited testing is to tick off all the boxes, and we’ve managed to do that: we collected plenty of data and I feel we’ve prepared for the season as best as we could.”
Monchaux was satisfied with the reliability of C43 throughout testing, with only minimal issues appearing through testing– all of which were quickly remedied by the team’s crew in the garage without much delay.
“Reliability was reasonably good for this stage in the season, and when we had some minor issues, the good work by our crew enabled us to make up the lost time without affecting our programme.”
Having put the team in a solid position ahead of Bahrain, Monchaux praised the work of the team at their Hilwil factory, which has allowed them to focus on preparing the car for the season ahead.
“Overall, we have to say thanks to our colleagues back in Hinwil, as well as to our race team, for putting us in the best possible conditions ahead of this testing session. Performance wasn’t yet our main aim: we didn’t focus on what the others were doing but simply looked at ourselves.”
“Like everyone else on the grid, we still have some homework to do ahead of next week, of course: we remain focused on delivering our best work in what is going to be a long season, and we’re excited to go back to racing at last.”
