Lusail, 8 October 2023 – Alfa Romeo F1 Team KICK celebrated a brilliant double-points finish at the Qatar Grand Prix, as Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu claimed 8th and 9th positions respectively. This result was the reward for a strong performance by the team as a whole, as drivers, pit crew and the whole of the race team delivered the perfect execution on race day.
Tonight’s result contributes six points to the team’s total of 16, as Alfa Romeo F1 Team KICK leapfrogs Haas for eighth place in the constructors’ championship and closes the gap on seventh place ahead.
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative: “Tonight we were able to deliver the race we had been aiming for, for a very long time. We knew we had the potential to score points but we had to execute the perfect race to bring home this result. The strategy was spot on, the pit-stops faultless and the drivers delivered two solid performances, pushing from the first to the last lap with no mistakes. It’s a nice reward for all the work done by the team in Hinwil, our race team here and Ferrari: we keep bringing new upgrades to track, while also relentlessly continuing, in the factory, in the sim and trackside, to understand and extract performance from our evolving package. Tonight’s result boosts our confidence and reinforces our belief that we can score points in any race if we do our job like tonight. Now, we need to make another step forward and build on the foundations we laid tonight to keep growing as a team for the remainder of the season. Our target remains seventh place in the championship, we will never stop reiterating that. It will be difficult, it will be a fight, but we have the people, the drivers and the commitment we need for it. It will be hard, of course – but we will also make it hard for our competitors.”
Valtteri Bottas (car number 77):
Alfa Romeo F1 Team KICK C43 (Chassis 02/Ferrari)
Race result: 8th
Fastest lap: 1:26.652 (Lap 54)
Tyres: Used Soft (3 laps) – New Medium (18 laps) – New Hard (18 laps) – Used Hard (18 laps)
“Today has been a great day for us, and I am really pleased with the result we brought home. It was hot and humid out there, quite extreme actually, and the conditions made it an even tougher job, but we knew we had the potential to do well – and we achieved that, thanks to a clean strategy and a flawless race. This double-points finish is a great reward for the whole team, both here and back home in Hinwil, for the hard work done over the past weeks on the upgrades; we keep extracting more from this package, which is encouraging for the races ahead. With the points scored today, we got to improve our position in the Constructor Championship, moving up to P8, and we’ll keep working hard to further advance and meet our season target.”
Zhou Guanyu (car number 24):
Alfa Romeo F1 Team KICK C43 (Chassis 01/Ferrari)
Race result: 9th
Fastest lap: 1:26.323 (Lap 54)
Tyres: New Medium (18 laps) – New Hard (17 laps) – New Hard (17 laps) – New Soft (5 laps)
“It was an amazing race, going from the back of the grid to the top ten: we had a good strategy, we managed the tyres well and did not make any mistake, and all this was the key to tonight’s result. We were quick on the hard tyres, our pace on the final stint was fantastic, and this allowed us to keep up with our rivals: by the final stint, it was quite unclear where everyone was with the penalty, so it’s great to be ninth at the end. It was not an easy race, we had to pull off some good overtakes and defend hard at times: it was important to keep within track limits, but we managed well. I’m really exhausted, I’ve never been pushing so hard in such conditions, but this is an amazing reward for all of us after such a tough period. We never gave up when things were difficult, and today we put it together when it mattered.”
