Alfa Romeo technical boss explains the company’s different car designs for the new F1 season

Alfa Romeo Technical Director Jan Monchaux has explained his team’s unique designs for this year’s Alfa Romeo car and also explained the different reliability issues that came up while the team was pre-testing in Barcelona.

The Alfa Romeo team finished the pre-season testing which took place in Spain with 175 laps – the second-lowest lap count out of all the teams before unveiling their 2022 livery That was the first time when the unique designs selected for the car was showcased in front of everyone.

“I have no crystal ball with me. In the past, we’ve been usually been really good at our reliability. For this new car, we had to go very extreme on some design features, essentially because of the weight impact. Yes, we had here and there a few issues to solve, but I am relatively confident we will be on top of them and as [for] mechanical issues… to some extent I prefer they happen now than during the season.”

Monchaux on chances of the reliability issues coming up again at Bahrain

The 2022 F1 championship season will be witnessing a lot of other new designs as well apart from Alfa Romeo with points of differentiation clear to see on every car on the grid, whether that be Ferrari’s scalloped sidepods or Mercedes’ striking floor

“The rules are very prescriptive in areas such as the front wing and the rear wing design, but we are not that surprised to see the different interpretation on the bodywork, which is visually giving the flair of all the cars we see on the track. So, it is quite interesting to see what our competitors have come up with and we are certainly going to look very closely at some interesting solutions.”

Zhou Guanyu (above) and Valtteri Bottas both encountered problems in pre-season running at Barcelona

Monchaux was defiant over his team’s reliability, adding that the team will find ways to iron out the problems in the car and will be ready for the Official Pre-Season testing in three days.

“Usually when we have those issues, we fix them once and for all,” continued the Technical Director. “It’s also why we go to testing. Yes, we would have liked to do more mileage, that’s for sure, but it’s as it is, we can’t change that.”

Monchaux said confidently.

Having finished ninth in 2021, the Swiss-based squad have plenty of work to do with an all-new driver pairing in Valtteri Bottas and rookie Zhou Guanyu this year.