Barcelona Pre-Season Test – Day 2
Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN closed the second day of pre-season testing on a positive note as Zhou Guanyu completed more than a full race distance in his first afternoon in the new C42. In the morning, Valtteri Bottas had started promisingly before some small issues limited his running, but the team can take heart by the improved mileage achieved in the rest of the day.
Zhou will be back in the car for tomorrow's morning session, while Valtteri will bring proceedings to a close in the afternoon.
Circuit: Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya / 4.675 km
Driver: Valtteri Bottas (morning); Zhou Guanyu (afternoon)
Chassis / engine: Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN C42-01 / Ferrari
Laps: 21, 98.16km (BOT); 71 laps, 331.96 km (ZHO)
Fastest Lap: 1:22.288 (BOT); 1:21.885 (ZHO)
Valtteri Bottas (Car 77): "The team ended the day with a good number of laps, and this has to be the main takeaway from today. We were able to do some consistent running in the afternoon, which bodes well for when I'll be back in the cockpit tomorrow. I wasn't able to run as much as I would have wanted this morning, but at least we know we addressed the issue and we can focus on making the most of the final day here in Barcelona. There's still a good way to go before we go racing, and we now have some data to help the team move towards the right window in terms of set-up."
Zhou Guanyu (Car 24): "It was nice to get to drive this new generation of cars: it definitely feels different from what I drove in the past. I took my time at the beginning of the session, trying not to push too hard but just getting used to the car and the way it felt: towards the end, I tried a few better runs. There is a little bit of bouncing compared to last year's car, for sure, but I'm sure everything is going to get better as the team understands the car more. We are working in the right direction. All in all, I am happy with my day and with getting a decent number of laps; we were able to bring home a lot of data for our engineers to analyse, which is very good ahead of tomorrow. I'm looking forward to being in the car again in the morning."
