2023 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix highlights

Alfa Romeo Racing Stake

Alfa Romeo F1 Team KICK brought home two points from a chaotic 2023 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix in which three red flags conspired to keep fans on the edge of their seats until the end of the race. Zhou Guanyu kept his cool through the drama to cross the line in tenth place and immediately upgraded to P9 following a 5s penalty to Carlos Sainz ahead. Valtteri Bottas just missed out on the points in P11.

The two points claimed by Zhou bring the team’s total to six so far this season, as Formula One goes on a four-week hiatus ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the end of the month.

Valtteri Bottas (car number 77):

I’m happy for Zhou and the team to return with two points from what can only be described as a chaotic race. My afternoon had been lonely and without much action until it all kicked off towards the end. We decided to take a risk at the start, and I pitted for hard tyres on lap one: the plan was to keep those tyres for the whole race, but then the red flag meant I couldn’t get many advantages from that. Later, when the safety car came out, we went for softs, but yet again, the red flag messed up my strategy. It’s been a hard weekend, we have been off the pace since the start, but we’ll look into that in the gap before the next race. I am glad to have some time before Baku to return to the drawing board and get back in a more competitive shape.

Zhou Guanyu (car number 24):

P9 at the chequered flag is a good result, especially considering where we started and our challenging weekend. There are positives to take – we had a really good start, which is something we worked really hard on, and we didn’t make any mistakes in a race with plenty of spills. We kept it clean and out of trouble, and I could keep the pressure on Magnussen in the later stages, which in the end, allowed us to get points. The conditions were difficult, and the track temperatures were very low, but we didn’t make mistakes, which is what matters. These are my first points of the year, always a nice reward in a tricky place like Melbourne. We will need to keep improving and hopefully add more points to our name in Baku and beyond.

Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative:

Today’s race shows the importance of fighting until the very end of the race. We kept pushing, executed the race well, and we placed ourselves in the position to capitalise on the opportunities when they came our way: luck is only getting a chance, and we had to seize it. We were actually quite unlucky with the timing of the first red flag: we had both cars on the right strategy to fight for the top ten, but the stoppage and the free stop it gifted everyone else effectively jeopardised our afternoon. Both Zhou and Valtteri had a solid race without making mistakes, and on a track like this, they were there or thereabout at the chequered flag. Two points are a good return in what has been a challenging weekend: we need to make the most of this little break before Baku to understand how to recapture the pace we had in Bahrain, analyse the data from the car, especially with the new upgrades our team at home was able to produce for this race and get back stronger for the next rounds.

Alfa Romeo F1 Team best pictures:

Zhou Guanyu (CHN) Alfa Romeo F1 Team C43.
Australian Grand Prix, Sunday 2nd April 2023. Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia.

Valtteri Bottas (FIN) Alfa Romeo F1 Team C43 in the pits while the race is stopped.
Australian Grand Prix, Sunday 2nd April 2023. Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia.

(L to R): Ruth Buscombe (GBR) Alfa Romeo F1 Team Head of Race Strategy with Xevi Pujolar (ESP) Alfa Romeo F1 Team Head of Trackside Engineering on the grid.
Australian Grand Prix, Sunday 2nd April 2023. Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia.

Valtteri Bottas (FIN) Alfa Romeo F1 Team.
Australian Grand Prix, Saturday 1st April 2023. Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia.

Zhou Guanyu (CHN) Alfa Romeo F1 Team.
Australian Grand Prix, Saturday 1st April 2023. Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia.

FIA Girls on Track with the Alfa Romeo F1 Team.
Australian Grand Prix, Thursday 30th March 2023. Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia.

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