Alfa Romeo outline key areas that will enable them to move up the grid

The 2022 Formula 1 season was one of the most competitive for Alfa Romeo, after achieving P6 in the Constructors' Championship.

The Alfa Romeo C42 was one of the few cars believed to be under the weight limit, while the team also went for an all-new driver lineup in Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.

Even though the team finished the season level on points with Aston Martin, it was Bottas' best race result of P5 that enabled them to finish ahead in the standings.

Given the poor reliability mainly experienced by Zhou throughout the season, could they have finished further up with McLaren and Alpine?

Head of Trackside Engineering, Xevi Pujolar, believes the team needs to make an "extra step" before they move further up the midfield.

"I think they're still a step ahead," he told media, including RacingNews365.com.

"What we have achieved by having more margin to Aston Martin, but still to be the level of Alpine or McLaren, we will need one more step and that's what we will be working on next year."

Pujolar: Now its all about 'consolidating' our P6

Pujolar said the team will be "consolidating" in the off-season, outlining where the team can make improvements.

He added: "Now we are consolidating this P6 and looking to make one step more. There was a few areas where our performance was good in the last few races.

"But still the areas that we need to improve in the races; starts, lap one and many of these areas, you'll see some margin - which is where we will need to be much better prepared."