Why did Alfa Romeo’s form drop so significantly in the second half of the season? – F1sport.cz

In the Constructors’ Cup, there is a big fight for sixth place. So far, Alfa Romeo is in the lead:

• Alfa Romeo: 52 points
• Aston Martin: -7 points
• Haas: -18 points
• AlphaTauri: -18 points

If we had to bet, then on Aston Martin, which has been doing quite solidly in recent races.

Alfa Romeo has 52 points. Of this number, however, she scored 51 points in the first nine races. In the next nine races, the team scored only 1 point. The fruitful points races in Imola and Canada are partly to blame for this, but it’s not just them. In the first nine races, the team scored seven times.

In a close fight for sixth place or in general for sixth to ninth place, the rules complicate the situation – only the first ten drivers score points. In terms of speed, ahead of the aforementioned teams are not only Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, but also Alpine and McLaren, who have a lead of around 3 tenths of a second. The second five therefore needs extraordinary conditions or the withdrawal of a larger number of cars from the first five. Otherwise, it only collects crumbs.

They lost the early advantage

The new cars are heavier than their predecessors. Even the dramatic increase in minimum weight was not enough for some teams. Alfa Romeo has been closest to the limit since the start of the season, and the lighter the car, the faster it is of course in lap time. The difference could be in the order of larger tenths of a second. Some cars are still overweight today, but it is less than at the beginning of the season. Alfa Romeo thus lost the advantage it did not have thanks to a better but rather lighter car.

The team also developed quite aggressively into Spain. According to Auto Motor und Sport in Hinwil, they assumed that with brand new cars it was easier to score points at the beginning than at the end of the season.

In the end, the team did not give up development even at the end of the season. In Japan, it deployed a more significantly redesigned front wing and a new nose. it should bring more downforce in fast corners without losing it in slow corners. Because the nose is shorter, the Sauber had to undergo a crash test. But the news is not primarily intended to reverse the situation in the championship, it is more of a test for next year.

Alfa Romeo is also struggling with worse reliability. Valtteri Bottas did not finish five races, Chou even six. And it’s not just about unfinished races. Penalties for new powertrain components also affect the results. If we exclude exhausts, which a driver can install more than one, then Valtteri Bottas is the only driver with a “seven” in the number of components used – in particular, he installed turbo and MGU-H seven times.