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Xevi Pulojar believes the McLaren F1 Group and BWT Alpine F1 Group have been too far forward of Alfa Romeo F1 Group ORLEN throughout the 2022 FIA Formulation 1 World Championship season, and even when that they had a extra dependable automobile, they’d nonetheless have completed behind them.
Alfa Romeo had a much-improved 2022 season and completed sixth within the Constructors’ Championship however have been 100 factors and 4 factors behind fifth positioned McLaren, and an additional fourteen factors again from Alpine.
The season began promisingly for Alfa Romeo, with Valtteri Bottas scoring factors in seven of the primary 9 races, with Zhou Guanyu scoring twice in the identical interval. Nonetheless, the second half of the season was a really totally different story, with solely 4 extra factors being scored, three for Bottas and one for Zhou.
Nonetheless, reliability and retirements value Alfa Romeo dearly, with each Bottas and Zhou retiring six occasions (Bottas was labeled within the Hungarian Grand Prix regardless of retiring late on, as was Zhou in France). They’d extra retirements than every other group on the grid.
Pulojar, the Head of Trackside Engineering at Alfa Romeo, mentioned that while the tempo of the C42-Ferrari was robust, they didn’t have the automobile able to being both Alpine or McLaren in 2022, though they weren’t helped by their dreadful reliability points.
“I believe they’re nonetheless a step forward,” Pulojar is quoted as saying by PlanetF1.com. “I believe what we’d have achieved, it will have been extra margin to Aston Martin, however nonetheless to the extent of Alpine or McLaren, we’ll want another step.
“And that’s what we will probably be engaged on subsequent yr, however nonetheless now could be consolidating on being P6 and seeking to one step extra.
“Nevertheless it’s a number of areas, efficiency now was good once more in the previous few races, however nonetheless the areas that we have to enhance, the races, begins, lap one and lots of different areas that now we have been nonetheless some margin, and that’s the place we will probably be significantly better ready for subsequent yr.”
Waiting for 2023, Pulojar says Alfa Romeo are aiming to be much more aggressive than they have been in 2022, and they’ll profit from the extra earnings of ending sixth within the standings.
“It’s vital for us as a result of subsequent yr will probably be much more aggressive than this yr,” mentioned Pulojar. “I believe not solely on that facet, however now we have seen we nonetheless have gotten many weak factors that we now could have time to work on and put together.
“We had some benefit in the beginning of the season, most likely subsequent yr will probably be a bit tougher from the start, all people will probably be very shut collectively, and now we simply must prepare for an additional good struggle from the start subsequent yr.
“And all that, being P6, will probably be assist to prepare for that new problem as a group.”
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