The Alfa Romeo team welcomed F1 driver Valtteri Bottas to the Stellantis &You showroom in Turin to deliver him his Alfa Romeo Giulia GTAm, purchased by the Finnish champion in distinctive Alfa Romeo Red. With the purchase of one of the 500 Giulia GTAs, the most powerful car ever realized by the Italian brand, Valtteri Bottas becomes a full member of the passionate Alfa Romeo “Tribe.”
All the Brand’s top representatives were present to celebrate the delivery of the car to the Finnish champion. After that, they welcomed him at the Alfa Romeo’s Centro Stile and Head Quarter. Moreover, the whole team celebrated together with the driver a moment that goes far beyond the simple purchase of an Alfa Romeo vehicle. His desire to become the owner of a “legendary car” for the Brand represents a manifestation of personal union with the Brand with which the driver shares ideals and values. A source of pride for who has made noble Italian sportiness a founding value since 1910.
During the meeting, Valtteri and the team also had the chance to discuss upcoming projects in which the driver is personally involved.
Cristiano Fiorio, Alfa Romeo F1 Manager: “This is a special moment for Alfa Romeo. Valtteri Bottas is an excellent professional, a winner, and his long career in F1 studded with 10 winning grand prix is evidence of that. His desire to join the inner and exclusive circle of Giulia GTA customers fills us with pride. In a world of business often driven by contractual obligations, today we are celebrating something different: Valtteri has shown us that sometimes passion drives our choices. Welcome Valtteri to the heart of our ‘tribe’.”.
Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo F1 Driver: “I’m clearly a lifelong car enthusiast. But most of all I love the Alfa Romeo Brand. It is an honor for me to be an ambassador of the Brand and now to become a customer, owner of one of the 500 Giulia GTAs. It’s a technically excellent vehicle, realized in collaboration with Sauber Engineering by leveraging the expertise and technical know-how that comes directly from Formula 1, but for us car and motorsport enthusiasts it represents so much more. It revives one of the legends of motorsport, the 1965 Giulia GTA, and perfectly embodies the Brand’s DNA, passion for motorsport, driving pleasure, and a unique and distinctive styling appeal.”.
Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA
The Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA has revived one of motoring’s legends and a milestone in the Brand’s history: the 1965 Giulia GTA. The ultimate expression of Alfa Romeo’s unique ability to combine style and sportiness, this model represents an authentic return to Alfa Romeo’s roots founded in the world of performance and grand touring.
The Giulia GTA is a high-performance vehicle based on a production model, the outstanding Giulia Quadrifoglio. Thanks to the extensive adoption of ultralight materials, the Giulia GTA benefits from a weight reduction of up to 100 kg compared to the Giulia Quadrifoglio and is equipped with an upgraded version of Alfa Romeo’s 2.9 V6 Bi-Turbo 540-hp engine with a specific power output of 187 hp/liter.
Alfa Romeo engineers worked in order to improve aerodynamics and handling, but above all to reduce weigh—the same guidelines followed for the 1965 Giulia GTA. To achieve these goals, there has been an extensive use of carbon fiber components and composite materials. Aerodynamics were specially designed to increase downforce. In these solutions is found the technical know-how that comes directly from Formula 1 thanks to the synergy with Sauber Engineering.
Alfa Romeo engineers were able to benefit from the expertise and facilities of Sauber Engineering. The Swiss company, with more than 50 years of experience in motorsport, 27 of which in F1, has gained in-depth know-how on aerodynamics thanks also to a proprietary wind tunnel that is among the most advanced in Europe. The Sauber team actively participated in the design, prototyping and manufacturing of the aerodynamic components of the new Giulia GTA.
GTA and Autodelta: History and Sporting Successes
The initials GTA stand for “Gran Turismo Alleggerita” (“Gran Turismo Lite”), invented in 1965 for the Giulia Sprint GTA, a specific version derived from the Sprint GT, set up for sports type-approval and unveiled at the Amsterdam Motor Show that year. The bodywork of the Giulia Sprint GT was replaced with an identical aluminum body, with a total weight of 745 kg compared to the 950 kg of the road-going version. A second variation concerned the 1570-cc twin cam engine which, in its road-going configuration with dual ignition, reached an impressive output of 115 hp. The Autodelta technicians, the first guise of Alfa Romeo’s official “Racing Department”, chose it as the benchmark vehicle for the Touring category, and developed it to achieve a maximum output of 170 hp. Success in competitions came very soon after: three consecutive “Challenge Europeo Marche”, dozens of national championships and hundreds of single races all over the world. The return of image to the line-up also made its mark: indeed, the Giulia Sprint GTA epitomized the claim “a victory a day in your everyday car”. Since then, the GTA has become part of the collective unconscious, as an undisputed icon of Biscione sportsmanship, the power of its initials ending up persuading the public to identify Alfa Romeo sports cars in general simply by “GTA”. A final word should go to the fact that, just like the GTA initials, the name “Autodelta” is similarly as iconic, the eponymous workshop located at the Balocco Proving Ground being the custodian of its cherished legacy.
