Mexico City, 29 October 2023 – Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake endured a frustrating Sunday afternoon in Mexico City as Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas, starting within the top ten on the grid, saw their quest for points nullified in the Mexican Grand Prix, finishing in 14th and 15th place respectively.
Today’s result sees the team slip to ninth place in the constructors’ championship, with three races remaining to make a step forward in the standings as we keep fighting until the very end.
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative: “Races like today’s are difficult to process, especially taking into consideration the strong qualifying performance we showed yesterday. We started in a good position for a double-points finish, and then lost ground throughout the race, eventually ending up outside the top ten. On top of that, Valtteri unfortunately suffered a brake temperature issue after the restart, when a tear-off got stuck into his left rear brake duct, which didn’t allow him to properly get into the mix. Our qualifying pace improved this weekend, but our race pace is the area in which we need to make progress ahead of the next races, so to keep up the fight for our seasonal target. Although we have slipped back to ninth place in the standings, tied on points with AlphaTauri, no hope is lost: with three races to go, all of us trackside, our drivers, and the team back home in Hinwil, are determined to give out all our best until the end to make a further leap forward and get back where we need to be.”
Valtteri Bottas (car number 77):
Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake C43 (Chassis 02/Ferrari)
Race result: 15th
Fastest lap: 1:23.166 (Lap 43)
Tyres: New Medium (31 laps) – New Hard (40 laps)
“Today has been a tough one of the team overall, and luck wasn’t on our side either: the Safety Car came out just one lap after we pitted, which meant we lost a lot of ground as everyone else got to change tyres during the subsequent red flag. The race restart was fine, at first, but then I got stuck in a train for pretty much the remaining laps, eventually ending up in a collision with Lance [Stroll] towards the end. Of course, it is disappointing to walk away with no points in the bag, especially as we had enjoyed quite a strong weekend until today. It has not been our day, but we still have three races to recover our position in the championship, starting from Brazil next week: we have been quite strong there in the past, so hopefully we can turn our luck around and get back into the fight.”
Zhou Guanyu (car number 24):
Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake C43 (Chassis 01/Ferrari)
Race result: 14th
Fastest lap: 1:23.567 (Lap 39)
Tyres: New Medium (21 laps) – New Hard (50 laps)
“It was a frustrating day – our race was pretty much destroyed by the red flag. I was one of the first to stop and change to hard tyres, but at the restart I was the one whose used hard tyres had the most laps in: everyone else had either new mediums or new hards, and that was game over for us. I had a good restart, but it was impossible to hold the position: the difference in grip was too much and I was a sitting duck for the rest of the race. It’s a shame as we had done a good job this weekend, and to leave with nothing is really disappointing.”
