After finishing in P11 and P12 at the season opener in Bahrain, Alfa Romeo is confident they can fight for those all-important points at Imola this weekend.
Kimi and Antonio drove a clean race in the beginning in Bahrain, running in the points for large parts of the race as the different strategies played out across the board.
In the end, there were no points gained for the Swiss team, but this result gives them reasons to be optimistic for the future.
The gaps are closer than ever already this season and marginal improvements can push Alfa Romeo into the top ten.
Speaking ahead of this weekend’s battle, Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal of Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN and CEO Sauber Motorsport, said:
“We had a solid start of the season and that’s a good basis upon which to build, starting from this weekend.
“We have made a considerable step forward in performance, possibly one of the biggest across the field, and we are now in the midfield fight, but the top ten is where you have to finish to bring home the points so that has to be our objective for Imola.
“Last year, we had our best result of the season here and we can take that as an encouragement, although we know the form we showed in 2020 is only a vague indicator of what we can expect this time around.
“We have seen how difficult it is to overtake around this circuit, so our Saturday performance will be crucial to make sure we get to the race in the best possible position to bring home points.”
Kimi Räikkönen said he has confidence heading into R2 of the season, hoping for a great weekend across the board:
“We are confident we can be in the middle of the fight for points in Imola as well, but we are under no illusions it is going to be easy.
“We saw in Bahrain that even a good weekend doesn’t mean a top ten finish, so we know we have to keep pushing to improve everything we do from Thursday to Sunday: the difference between finishing just behind the top teams and outside of the top ten will be very small.
“Hopefully we can do our homework, have a good weekend and we get to be in that first group: we know what is in our control and what isn’t, so we just have to make sure we perform as we know we can.”
Meanwhile, Antonio Giovinazzi is hoping to score his first points of the season on home soil:
“What we saw in Bahrain gave us a big confidence boost and we are looking forward to seeing how competitive we can be in Imola.
“We know we can be in the fight, but we also know we need to deliver a flawless weekend to maximise our returns: the margins are very small in the midfield, especially in qualifying, and every little detail makes a difference.
“I would love to open my scoring tally in Imola, on home soil: having three home races last season didn’t spoil me, it’s always a special feeling to race at home and this weekend will be no different.”
FP1 kicks off at the rescheduled time of 10 am on Friday morning, followed by F2 at 1:30 pm Irish time.
