周冠宇

Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN completed a busy day of practice at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, as the team kicked off their on-track activities for the Mexican Grand Prix. The focus was on maximising performances in the first Free Practice session of the day, with another extended FP2 session mainly dedicated to tyres testing ahead of 2023. Despite a few issues not allowing Zhou Guanyu to get the most out of his time in the car, the team enjoyed a decent start to the weekend, with Valtteri Bottas firmly in the top ten in both sessions.

Valtteri Bottas (car number 77):
Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN C42 (Chassis 01/Ferrari)
FP1: 7th / 1:21.083 (23 laps)
FP2: 9th / 1:21.993 (36 laps)

"The car was feeling pretty good today. Coming into this weekend, I was expecting for it to be a decent track for us, and it seems like so far everything is running smooth, so overall it has been a positive day. We seemed to be in a good place with lap times in both sessions, and hopefully that is a good sign ahead of tomorrow. FP2 was obviously all about learning about the new tyres, which feel very similar to the current ones to me. There is indeed a difference with the tyre pressure, which can clearly be perceived, but apart from that, they feel mostly the same."

Zhou Guanyu (car number 24):
Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN C42 (Chassis 03/Ferrari)
FP1: 12th / 1:21.820 (20 laps)
FP2: 20th / 1:23.369 (34 laps)

"Today hasn't been the easiest day, in fact it has been quite messy out there for me. During FP1 my gear got stuck while I was practicing starts in the pitlane; at first we were okay in FP2, but then we had quite a few small issues in the long run, and eventually at the end of the session I had to stop the car on track because of a hydraulic issue. As a positive, I got to learn the track and our car felt quite strong, so we should be ready for tomorrow and hopefully have a smooth and cleaner day. Upgrades have been working extremely well, especially on the one-lap performance, so I am confident we can have a strong qualifying. Our priority now is to get rid of the issues we experienced today, and then we are good to go."