Despite missing out on points at Silverstone, Alessandro Alunni Bravi says the Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake can take confidence from their performance, particularly on Sunday when both Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu gained positions from their starting spots.
Bottas gained eight positions from the back of the grid, the Finn moving up after being disqualified after Qualifying, to finish twelfth, while Zhou finished fifteenth after starting seventeenth.
Alfa Romeo brought updates to their C43-Ferrari ahead of the British Grand Prix, and Alunni Bravi, the Team Representative of the Hinwil-based outfit, says they can be happy with the progress, both on the car and in the race.
“Today, we must pay tribute to our team and drivers for the job done, in a race that wasn’t set to be easy for us: overall, we have recovered ten positions, eight with Valtteri and two with Zhou, as proof that if we carry out a perfect race, we can get into the fight for points,” said Alunni Bravi.
“Yesterday was not our day, and of course, starting from the back is never easy, but today we showed an improvement in the race pace compared to previous events, which gives us confidence for the next two races before the summer break.
“There, our target will be to further optimise our new package, in order to be competitive from Friday onwards and recover positions in the Constructors’ Championship.”
Alunni Bravi says Bottas raced flawlessly throughout the race to move up the grid, particularly when running the hard compound tyre in the first stint, but he bemoaned an additional stop for Zhou for clearing a tear-off from his brake duct.
But he pleased that the team had made a step forward in performance thanks to the upgrades, and he hopes they can further improve in the upcoming races so they can fight for points.
“Valtteri did a solid race today, executing a flawless performance: starting from the back of the grid on hard tyres, which also required some management in the first laps,” he said. “Zhou’s race has been more unfortunate: we had to pit him an extra time to remove a tear-off from his brake duct, which made him lose a position and eventually kept him from further progressing through the field.
“We come back from Silverstone aware that a step has been made in terms of performance through the upgrades we have brought, although the final positions haven’t reflected it.
“What we have learned from this weekend is that each and everyone of us needs to execute every race to the very best and that there is no room for mistakes.
“Moving forward, this will be our focus, in order to consistently remain in the fight for points.”
