Alfa Romeo not pressured by Ferrari

Alfa Romeo will remain in Formula 1 as a partner of Sauber for at least another year and that also means that the links with Ferrari will remain warm. Nevertheless, Frederic Vasseur has emphasized the importance of the team remaining their own entity.

In 2018 Alfa Romeo joined the Sauber team as title sponsor and since 2019 the former Sauber F1 Team has been known as Alfa Romeo. Vasseur is at the head of the team and last week chose his drivers for 2021. The same line-up of Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi, which according to Vasseur is not influenced by Ferrari either.

"We have a good working relationship with Ferrari, so we will discuss the choice of drivers. However, there is no pressure on us. We have an open discussion with Ferrari and the drivers, because the driver also has to fit into the team and feel comfortable here,” said Vasseur in conversation with Auto, Motor und Sport.

"It's in the DNA of this team that we are independent. With the new rules, it is also important to continue to make parts ourselves, because then it will have less impact on the budget. We have a structure within the organization to get this done properly."

However, Vasseur stressed that he has nothing against organizations such as Haas, who buy everything. ''I don't want to criticize Haas' model, because every team has its own project, structure and limitations. We have a factory and our own wind tunnel, so we can do a lot ourselves. We make optimal use of that power and will continue to do so."