Alfa look to build on ‘strong’ Monaco showing
Antonio Giovinazzi Monaco
Alfa Romeo team principal Frederic Vasseur says he and his team are hoping for another strong weekend in Baku after a positive showing in Monaco.
Antonio Giovinazzi earned the team’s first point of the season in coming home P10 in Monte Carlo, with Kimi Raikkonen a place behind him – even without a working drinks filter, leaving the Finn dehydrated.
But after a tough start to the season, Vasseur says the team are looking to claw their way further up the pack.
“We were in Q3 for the first time and scored a point,” Vasseur said after the race, quoted by Motorsport Magazin. At least I’ve got rid of that question [when it will finally be enough for World Championship points].
“P10 with Antonio, points, that’s good. But at one point we expected to be a bit better. But it’s somehow also a good feeling when you’re still frustrated about P10.
“We have shown with Ferrari that we perform on [street] layouts, maybe it will be similar in Azerbaijan, but there you have two different tracks in one.
“The city is like Macau, close to Monaco. But then you have these 2.5 kilometres or so of straights. It’s going to be a bit more difficult.”
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Giovinazzi believes he could have earned more points on Sunday, but for the near-impossible nature of trying to overtake around Monaco – but knows that passing is much more likely around Baku next time out, which he hopes to use to his advantage.
“We were much faster than Ocon for the last 25 laps, but here you have absolutely no chance to try anything there,” he said.
“On another track, where overtaking is possible, we could have been eighth. We lost a bit after Ocon’s overcut against me. After that my pace was better, but we lost the position against Stroll.”
“We had a lot of bad luck at the beginning of the year so I hope it will turn around now and we can have great results from now on.
“Now comes another street circuit with Baku, a track that I really love.
“It’s just a good feeling to go there with this car. But it’s a different track because the straight is very long. The power unit will also be important there. But we have shown that the speed is there.
“We just have to deliver another strong weekend like this one.”
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