Alfa Romeo Team Representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi believes that racing on permanent circuits until the Formula 1 summer break will greatly benefit the team. The squad have endured mixed fortunes so far during the 2023 campaign but broke a streak of non-points scoring races at the Spanish Grand Prix with P9 for Zhou Guanyu. Valtteri Bottas followed this up in Canada by scoring one point after narrowly being beaten by Lance Stroll to P9 at the finish line, leaving Bravi satisfied with the team's recent achievements. "We must be happy with the one point we scored with Valtteri, even though it's always a bit bitter to lose one position [to Stroll] with just metres to go," Bravi explained. "Still, one point can make a fundamental difference at the end of the season, and we have now scored in two races in a row. "I want to thank all the team for their hard work towards this result, which was not a foregone conclusion after [Saturday's] qualifying session."
Alfa Romeo confident for qualifying boost
With Zhou and Bottas having started the race in Montreal from P14 and P20 on the grid respectively, Bravi admits that the team are focused on improving their qualifying performances. "We know Saturdays are where we need to focus our attention: a better qualifying position can allow us to a fight for higher places and, ultimately, more points," he added. "In terms of race pace, our cars seem to be better, so we know the C43 as an overall package can be competitive." The F1 calendar now heads back to Europe for the final four races before the sport's summer break commences, and Bravi believes that the upcoming venues of Austria, Great Britain, Hungary and Belgium will all better suit Alfa Romeo on Saturdays. "We will race on permanent circuits until the summer break, and we are confident they can better suit our qualifying performances," Bravi continued. "We have seen, once again, how tight the battle is: one single metre could cost a position, just like one single tenth in qualifying can make the difference between Q2 and Q3: we will need to keep on working as hard as possible, both at the track and at the factory, to constantly improve."
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