Where Alfa Romeo stands after pecking order rejected
Alfa Romeo finished sixth in the championship last year – their best finish for a decade – but after a winter of change that saw team principal Fred Vasseur leave for Ferrari and Andreas Seidl come in as CEO, they have struggled for form so far in 2023 So, let’s take a look at their half-yearly report…
Better finish
Valtteri Bottas – 8th in Bahrain
Valtteri Bottas’ eighth place finish at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix remains Alfa Romeo’s best result of the season. The Finn put in one of those quiet but effective performances that we’re used to seeing him finish in the top 10.
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Bottas qualified in 12th, but a strong start and epic first pass saw him make up places in the early stages, before he overtook the cars in front of him and found himself a stage into sixth. He ended up losing places to the fastest cars, but came in eighth.
At this stage of the season, these four points account for almost half of Alfa Romeo’s tally, with the team ninth in the championship with nine points on the board.
Valtteri Bottas’ P8 finish in Bahrain is still Alfa Romeo’s best result this year
Head-to-head qualifiers
Head-to-Head: Valtteri Bottas 8 – 4 Zhou Guanyu
The ratings may not reflect it, but in his second year, Zhou is much closer to his more experienced teammate. On dry weekends, both drivers are extremely well matched, with usually only a tenth or two separating the pair.
Bottas has reached Q3 twice this year – in Miami where he started 10th and in Hungary (P7) – although Zhou has the team’s highest starting position – fifth in Hungary.
READ MORE: Alunni Bravi sets key priority for Key when he joins Alfa Romeo technical team next month
Melee
Valtteri Bottas 8 – 4 Zhou Guanyu
Like qualifying, the drivers are also pretty evenly matched in terms of average positions. However, when both have crossed the line on a Sunday, Bottas has been ahead of Zhou more times during the first 12 races.
The Finn’s P8 in Bahrain is his best finish of the year and Bottas returned to the points in Montreal, where he finished 10th. Zhou, on the other hand, had a foray into the top 10, and that came with a ninth-place finish in Barcelona.
Bottas has the qualifying and race advantage over Zhou, although the pair are closer on the pace
The best moment
In a year that hasn’t had the success they’d hoped for, their Saturday in Budapest showed signs that Alfa Romeo was beginning to recapture the form it showed in the early stages of the 2022 season.
After showing good pace all weekend, Zhou qualified fifth – his career-best grid slot – with Bottas right behind him on the grid in seventh. Both drivers also briefly topped the timesheets with competitive times – with Zhou even setting the fastest time of Q1.
READ MORE: Our writers look back at 2023 so far and predict what’s to come in the second half of the season
The worst moment
Sunday’s result in Budapest did not go well, with both drivers finishing out of the points despite their promising grid slots, but the Azerbaijan weekend was perhaps even more difficult for Alfa Romeo. Zhou retired with mechanical problems, while Bottas finished the final day from the rest of the runners in 18th place.
Even the day before on the Sprint Saturday, both drivers failed at the first hurdle in SQ1, and while Zhou made it to 12th from 16th at 100KM, Bottas could only cross the line in P16 after starting 17th.
Alfa Romeo will aim to gain more points and finish seventh in the championship
Going forward
The aim for the final 10 races of the campaign will be to try to recapture some of the form they showed in the early stages of the 2022 season at the start of the new technical regulations for ground effects.
And although they’ve been fighting for the top 10 so far this year, they’re only two points behind Williams and Haas in the championship, so they could easily overtake them and take P7 with a few decent results.
But perhaps more important is the work that goes on behind the scenes at the factory in Hinwil. The team will revert to the Sauber name for next season as Alfa Romeo pulls out, and Seidl’s job is to prepare the outfit to become a full Audi team for 2026.
On the technical side, ex-McLaren man James Key joins in September with a clear mandate to build that part of the business while also looking to improve track results as quickly as possible.
READ MORE: Alunni Bravi sets key priority for Key when he joins Alfa Romeo technical team next month
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