周冠宇

Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake completed an eventful day of on-track action at the Canadian Grand Prix, with mixed weather conditions affecting the proceedings at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. With only one extended practice session at their disposal, following external technical issues in the circuit CCTV system that prevented nearly the entirety of FP1 from going forward for safety reasons, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu still managed to go through their run plans, getting a good amount of mileage in and testing different set-ups on the car.

The data gathered over the 90 minutes session will be thoroughly analysed overnight, trying to extract every ounce of performance from the C43 ahead of tomorrow's qualifying.

Valtteri Bottas (car number 77):
Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake C43 (Chassis 02/Ferrari)
FP1: 1st / 1:18.728 (3 laps)
FP2: 7th / 1:14.220 (40 laps)

"It's been a bit of an unusual Friday for everyone; we only managed to set one timed lap in FP1, before the session got red flagged and subsequently stopped. On the other hand, we got to do an extended FP2, getting a decent number of laps in, with only the final minutes of the session being slightly compromised by the rain. Overall, it's been a positive day: the car felt good in dry conditions, and our performance was within the top ten the whole time, which is encouraging for the rest of the weekend ahead. The weather forecast remains mixed, so our focus will be on finding a good compromise to be at our best both in dry and wet conditions. Based on today, our car has the potential to make it into Q3, so that will be what we'll be working towards."

Zhou Guanyu (car number 24):
Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake C43 (Chassis 01/Ferrari)
FP1: 9th / 1:24.961 (3 laps)
FP2: 14th / 1:14.811 (37 laps)

"Overall, it's been a solid day: we managed to go through our whole programme for the day during FP2, which offset having spent most of FP1 under a red flag. It looks like tomorrow's weather will be very similar to what we had today towards the end of the second practice session, with heavy rain, which can be tricky; we'll work on it tonight, to make sure we can make a proper step forward tomorrow. It will be important to find a good compromise between set-ups, as Sunday may as well be mostly cloudy instead. Our main aim is to get into Q3; the minimum would be achieving a decent position in Q2, similar to what we had in Barcelona, to allow us to drive into the points in the race. I am confident we can achieve this; the wet conditions always add a variable to the equation, but we will make sure to come prepared."