Formula 1 qualifying in Baku was a clear disappointment for Alfa Romeo. The racing team missed Q3 for only the third time this season, but quite clearly.
Guanyu Zhou and Valtteri Bottas only finished 14th and 15th in Azerbaijan – and Bottas’ first internal team defeat.
“Qualifying was a bit strange and we’re definitely not where we wanted to be,” says the Finn. Although Alfa Romeo also experienced a mixed Friday, the drivers were certain that the updates held for Saturday would be a big step forward. But that was only possible in theory.
With ninth place, Zhou hinted at the potential of the car, at least in Q1. However, the racing team could not improve in Q2 and occupied the last two places there. And according to Bottas, there were several reasons for that.
On the one hand there are the brakes, with which the Finn had a few problems in the third practice session. “We used different brakes today, then the problems came. In qualifying we used a different set again and it was better,” he says. However, his confidence in the car was no longer at the necessary top level.
Another problem area was the tires, from which Bottas could not get everything out. “The first lap wasn’t good all weekend,” he complains. Therefore, the racing team chose a different tactic at the end of Q2: They wanted to do a fast lap, then a slow one and then a fast one again.
The first lap went fine, but on the second fast lap Bottas’ time was ruined by Yuki Tsunoda, who triggered a yellow flag at Turn 2. “As a result, I couldn’t try again. I think I would have improved, but it wasn’t meant to be,” said the Finn.
Zhou beats Bottas for the first time
The same thing happened to teammate Zhou, who also got stuck in Q2 but managed to beat his stable rival in qualifying for at least the first time this season. “We made a big step forward all weekend and I think we had a lot more potential today than P14,” said the Chinese.
He believes that a place in Q3 would have been quite possible, “although the field is so narrow that you can’t really say that”.
“We had our tires ready for a good second push lap as we saw they were working best at that moment, but the yellow flag with Tsunoda affected both our cars badly and prevented us from improving.” zhou
Confidence for Sunday
Team boss Frédéric Vasseur also had to admit after qualifying that the result did not live up to expectations and also did not reflect the team’s potential. “Our goal was to be at the front of the pack in the last run and we achieved that – unfortunately the yellow flag didn’t give us the chance to show what we can do,” he said.
The racing team now wants to concentrate fully on Sunday, when, despite the poor starting position, a lot is still to be expected: “We know that our car has good pace and that this track allows for overtaking manoeuvres,” says Vasseur. “We’re expecting an eventful Sunday, anything can happen.”
“I think we have a good pace for the race. Hopefully we can put everything together and take a few points home,” said Zhou. Bottas agrees: “Our race pace yesterday was good,” he emphasizes. “I’m confident we can make some good overtakes tomorrow and move up the field.”