The Alfa Romeo F1 team had a difficult pre-season at Barcelona. largely due to issues that came up in the car.
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Alfa Romeo F1 team Technical Director Jan Monchaux believes the team will not face any reliability issues in the start of the 2022 Formula 1 season.
It is not a stretch to say that Alfa Romeo had a difficult pre-season at Barcelona. The team did not get much track time, largely due to issues that came up in the car.
They were second-last, ahead only of Haas, in terms of laps clocked. And many are thus concerned the team might have a few struggles at the start of the season.
However, the team has generally been solidly reliable in terms of producing their cars. And thus they expect no issues – despite some more ‘extreme’ design features.
“I have no crystal ball with me. In the past we’ve been usually been really good in our reliability. For this new car we had to go very extreme on some design features, essentially because of the weight impact,” Monchaux said.
“Yes, we had here and there a few issues to solve, but I am relatively confident we will be on top of them and as [for] mechanical issues… to some extent I prefer they happen now than during the season.”
Monchaux was also not surprised to see variety in terms of design solutions among teams. He believes the new rules are prescriptive only in some areas, allowing for different interpretations in others.
“The rules are very prescriptive in areas such as the front wing and the rear wing design, but we are not that surprised to see the different interpretation on the bodywork, which is visually giving the flair of all the cars we see on track.
“So it is quite interesting to see what our competitors have come up with and we are certainly going to look very closely at some interesting solutions.”
It is also worth noting that there’s a second round of testing yet to come. Therefore, there is enough time for the team to turn things around.
And that is exactly what Monchaux is banking on.
Also read: Alfa Romeo positive about 2022 Formula 1 car despite issues in testing
“Usually when we have those issues, we fix them once and for all. It’s also why we go to testing. Yes, we would have liked to do more mileage, that’s for sure, but it’s as it is, we can’t change that.”
Alfa Romeo finished ninth in the constructor’s standings. However, they will start 2022 with an all-new driver line-up of Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou.
