"No quick fix" for Alfa Romeo aerodynamic problems as team continues to struggle

Alfa Romeo

"No quick fix" for Alfa Romeo aerodynamic problems as team continues to struggle

Alfa Romeo only has one points-finish in 2020 so far

Ewan Gale

Thursday 13 August 2020 16:49

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Alfa Romeo driver Kimi Raikkonen has warned there will be no "easy fix" for the pace issues faced by the team in Formula 1 this year.

Raikkonen has yet to score a point in 2020 whilst team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi has picked up just two points, with the team often languishing at the tail-end of the field.

Currently, Alfa Romeo is the worst-performing of the Ferrari-powered entrants as they qualified in 19th and 20th for last weekend's 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.

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Raikkonen is adamant the aerodynamics of the car needs to improve but the 2007 world champion is wary changes in the area can take time.

“The engine side, it is what it is," he said ahead of this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix.

"But even if we had the best chassis, we should be up there. Obviously we don’t, so we need to improve on that side, and obviously the difficult side is, it's not an easy fix, it's not the quickest fix.

"It takes time, so hopefully step-by-step we can start turning it around and being where we want to be.

“Obviously we are too slow, but where did we go wrong? I guess when we designed the car. We hoped that we were back where we started last year. We were obviously a lot better off if you compare with the other teams [in 2019] and this year, definitely not where we were hoping to be, or expected to be, so there's been something gone wrong and obviously we need to improve the downforce.

“We need more aero... and obviously to go faster around every corner. The balance can be quite good, but the lap time is not there, so it's quite easy in that way to say what we need. But the most difficult part of the whole F1 is probably the aerodynamics, so it’s not an easy fix.”

Giovinazzi took a more positive angle on the Alfa Romeo's fortunes, believing gaining just a few tenths would improve the general mood in the team.

“We're doing our best and we need to find not a big amount of gap,” said the Italian.

“We need to just find a few tenths that would make our lives a bit easier, and then motivation is going higher as well and confidence with the car is going higher.

“To drive, it's not really bad, but just the pace is not there, the speed is not there, but we are working really hard to find out where we can improve outside of the engine, because like I said, it's not our priority – our priority is to improve our car.”

Alfa Romeo currently sits in eighth place in the constructors' championship with only Haas and Williams behind them. While Haas has a point less, the American outfit has had better qualifying- and race pace with Alfa Romeo continuing to fall down the order.

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