The team had a bad 2020 season and only scored eight points on the way to eighth place in the constructors’ championship. It achieved its best result at the Emilia Romagna GP, where Kimi Raikkonen finished ninth.
In pre-season testing, Alfa turned out to be one of the surprises with the C41, suggesting an improvement over last year. His potential was confirmed last weekend when Raikkonen and his team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi ended up just outside of the points in 11th and 12th.
After the Sakhir race, Vasseur was convinced that strong results were only a matter of time.
“Tonight gave us a strong indication of the progress we’ve made over the past 12 months,” said Vasseur after the race. “We drove with authority, left the Alps and an Aston Martin behind us and landed on the rear of the other Aston.
“Even though we left Bahrain with no points, we have regained our place in midfield – and the results will certainly come soon. We have shown that we can fight in and for the top ten and that we can watch with.” Optimism for the rest of the season.
“It was an eventful race, although the low rate of wear and tear – just two failures – meant we had to stop working to aim for a spot in the points.
“However, we are looking very positively as we know that in two weeks we can go to the next race in Imola to fight for a place in the top 10 again,” he added.
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Giovinazzi said his 12th place was the best he had hoped for in Bahrain but was also encouraged by Alfa’s progress.
“I think what we did today was the maximum we could,” said the Italian. “AlphaTauri is still too fast for us, but we have to be happy because we have improved a lot compared to last year.
“We’re a lot closer to Alpine, to Aston Martin. So yeah, I think we can have more fun today.”
Although Giovinazzi lost some time in the pits, in his opinion a point ranking is still out of the question.
“I think without that mistake it might have been good to be ahead of Kimi, but not in the top 10,” he said.
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