Frederic Vasseur viewed Alfa Romeo’s 2021 Formula 1 season with mixed feelings, calling it “good in terms of performance” but “poor in terms of results”.
After a difficult 2020 in which Alfa Romeo struggled with its underperforming Ferrari engine, the team seemed to take a step towards the other midfield teams last year, improving their points balance from 8 to 13 with drivers Kimi Räikkönen and Antonio Giovinazzi .
But the team fell from eighth to ninth place in the Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship as Williams had its best season in four years and used the hectic races in Hungary and Belgium to score the majority of his points.
With a view to the 2021 season, Alfa Romeo team boss Vasseur admitted that he had a “very strange feeling” because the jump in performance had not been rewarded with improved results.
“We did pretty well in terms of performance,” said Vasseur. “We took a huge step compared to last year, probably the best in terms of pure performance versus pole position.
“On the other hand, we missed the year’s good opportunities. We were involved in the crash in Budapest, in Spa.
“We had some missed opportunities on our side. In Bahrain, I think we had the problem at the pit stop or in Imola when Kimi spun on the warm-up lap, it cost us – [it’s] two points there, four points there.
“It’s a strange feeling because in the end, the points are your only KPI that makes sense. It doesn’t matter to be faster if you don’t collect points.”
Kimi Raikkonen, Alfa Romeo Racing C41, Antonio Giovinazzi, Alfa Romeo Racing C41
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Vasseur acknowledged the scenario looking back at the season was a source of frustration for Alfa Romeo, but he felt his form had waned a bit over the summer – coinciding with Williams’ strongest races – before it ended of the year recovered.
“The season really went up and down,” he said.
“We probably got off to a good start until Monaco or something like that. And then we had a hard time in the summer – maybe we were on vacation, I don’t know! Year.
“Again, it’s very difficult to analyze because if you look at the classification, it’s clear.
“But when you look at the pure performance, it sometimes depends on a tenth completely changing the picture. [In Saudi Arabia] we hit Q3 but we were a tenth to go into Q1 and get out in Q1. If you’re trying to take a look at the season, we have to look out for it.
“If I had to judge this season as a whole, I would say the performance is good and the results are bad.”
Alfa Romeo will have an entirely new driver line-up in 2022 as Valtteri Bottas joins F2 graduate Guanyu Zhou from Mercedes, replacing Raikkonen and Giovinazzi.
