Zhou Guanyu admits that Alfa Romeo just did not have the pace to score points in Austin regardless of what they chose to do with their strategy, while Valtteri Bottas believes the track layout may have compromised his team this weekend.
In a fairly eventful FP1 session in Baku, it was Max Verstappen who took P1 in the opening session of the weekend. His lap time was set with less than 15 minutes left, and ensured he beat out Charles Leclerc in P2 and Carlos Sainz P3. The top eight was separated by just 0.812 seconds, and the session suggested that it won't be plain sailing for both Red Bull and Mercedes.
Following the much publicised loss of performance after an FIA technical directive in 2020, Ferrari have rolled the dice with a new power unit for 2021. And with that unit set to be fitted in his Alfa Romeo team’s C41 challenger this season, Team Principal Fred Vasseur said he had been encouraged by the numbers he’d seen coming out of Maranello so far.
Ferrari’s power unit issues had knock-on effects for their customer teams in 2020, with all three of Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Haas scoring just 142 points between them – compared to the 768 put on by the three Mercedes teams, including the non-scoring Williams – and leaving them sixth, eighth and ninth in the constructors’ standings respectively.
Two alpha drivers will be a no-go for F1 teams
Date published:
January 13 2021
Jos Verstappen entertained the idea of seeing Max v Lewis in the same car, but PlanetF1 readers do not think that is a realistic option.
Plus your thoughts on Jenson Button’s claimed failed move to Ferrari in 2013 and our rankings on the 2021 driver line-up.
WhoKnew: I couldn’t care less if Max and Lewis or any other driver on the grid never raced again in F1 and there was an entirely new batch of drivers.
As for seeing Max in a Mercedes nope, let’s see him drag a team up to win a WCC like Lewis and Michael did.