Why Alfa Romeo seems completely back to square one, but is not

Alfa Romeo Racing had a very disappointing 2021. The formation led by Frederic Vasseur managed to take only thirteen points in the whole of last season, trailing only Haas in the Constructors' Championship. At the beginning of 2022, Alfa Romeo got off to an incredibly good start, but in the time since they seem to be back to square one: driving laps in the backfield. How worrying is this?

Great contrast

Believe it or not, but since the British Grand Prix Alfa Romeo managed to pick up just one paltry point. Just one point in the last nine GPs, which is quite embarrassing. That makes the Swiss-Italian team the worst-performing Formula 1 team in recent months. Williams picked up more points thanks to Nyck de Vries and Nicholas Latifi and Haas F1 also scored more championship points in the same period, although it has to be said that the American stable is still pointless after the summer break.

After the Monaco Grand Prix, when seven races had been completed, Alfa Romeo were more than in good shape. The team took fifth position among constructors and managed to score 41 points: more than in 2019 and 2020 combined. Valtteri Bottas scored plenty points for his employer, hitting the top ten six times on Sundays, which could even have been seven had his engine not failed.

Turning point for Alfa Romeo

Teammate Zhou had the dream debut in the season-opener in Bahrain by immediately claiming a World Championship point by crossing the finish line in tenth place. In the six races that followed, however, he remained pointless, partly due to two DNFs. Alfa Romeo had calculated that contracting a rookie in the first weekends of 2022 would cost points. However, it indicates that more than those 41 points could have been in it for Alfa Romeo.

From then on, however, things went downhill. In Canada, the racing stable took another double points finish with a P7 and P8, but in the months that followed, only Zhou finished in the points once more in Italy (P10). How could that be? An unreliable Ferrari engine and fewer developments than other teams.

Lots of bad luck

No fewer than 11 failures to finish this season. Eight DNFs are directly attributable to mechanical problems, of which the Ferrari engine was very often the culprit. Of the other three crashes, two were caused by Nicholas Latifi. Bottas was launched in Belgium and the same happened to Zhou in Singapore. The other DNF occurred at Silverstone when Zhou crashed on the opening lap, but could do little about it himself.

Alfa Romeo has also been particularly unlucky, losing points as a result. However, the fact that things have not been going as well in the last few months as they did in the opening phase of the year is also somewhat explainable. Alfa Romeo used much of the budget in the winter to have a competitive C42 on the asphalt immediately. After all, Vasseur's men knew that the chance to score a lot of points lay at the beginning of 2022. Many teams were still in a battle developed at the end of 2021, while Alfa Romeo decided early in 2021 to set its sights fully on the new regulations and thus 2022.

Fewer updates

It is therefore no surprise to Alfa Romeo that things are slowing down now. Rigorous updates were no longer brought either. Reasons? A lot of budget has been swallowed up at the beginning of 2022 and there should also be money left over for the development of the 2023 car. Still, they do try to keep coming up with updates whenever possible. In Japan, the nose and front wing were taken care of; for the US Grand Prix, the floor.

Whereas Alfa Romeo got off to a fantastic start, Aston Martin's start was quite the opposite. A completely new chassis (aka the AMR22-B) was introduced in Spain at the end of May. Only from then on did the British formation start moving in the right direction. Alfa Romeo started well and are ending less so. At Aston Martin, there is still budget and things seem to have turned around. Of the last seven GPs, six times at least one Aston Martin finished in the top-ten. In Singapore and Japan, there were even two sixth-place finishes.

Is Alfa Romeo holding out?

That Alfa Romeo are still sixth in the World Championship is somewhat special and perhaps mainly due to the fact that it is often the McLarens and Alpines that finish in the top-ten. From Haas F1, in a crisis of form, we know that they are no longer coming out with updates and that the focus is entirely on 2023. AlphaTauri still scores points every now and then, but are now a shadow of their former self when we look at recent seasons.

Aston Martin in particular seems to be a major threat to Alfa Romeo's sixth place in the Constructors' Championship. Lawrence Stroll's team has a good taste of it. With four Grands Prix to go, Alfa Romeo's lead is 15 points. A reasonable, but certainly not a safe margin.

Whether Alfa Romeo finishes sixth or seventh, it is the best year for Alfa Romeo since its return to Formula 1 in 2019. It means the strategy [being competitive right from the start and dropping slightly at the end] has paid off. The question is what Alfa Romeo has in mind for 2023? The regulations remain largely the same, so making as big a step as at the start of 2022 is not a possibility.

Much will depend on how much time and resources have already been put into developing the 2023 car in recent months. And while there is talk of an engine freeze in Formula 1, Ferrari will also have to look sweetly on it to further boost reliability. After all, it has cost Alfa Romeo quite a few World Championship points this year.