Alfa Romeo confident of overhauling Williams "in normal conditions"

Sam Hall
Saturday 7 August 2021 15:10

Alfa Romeo head of track engineering Xevi Pujolar is confident his team can climb back above Williams in the constructors' standings after slipping to ninth in Hungary.

Nicholas Latifi and George Russell finished eighth and ninth at the Hungaroring and were promoted a place each after Sebastian Vettel's disqualification to collect 10 points for Williams.

It was the team's first points finish since the 2019 German Grand Prix and its first double points return since the 2018 Italian Grand Prix.

The result pushed Williams seven points clear of Alfa Romeo into eighth in the standings but with 12 scheduled races remaining, Pujolar is optimistic the positions can again be reversed.

Asked if this would require another similarly chaotic race, he said: “I think under normal racing conditions we could achieve this. Not in one go. “But if we had only three or four races left, probably yes. If we have still got multiple races to go then this is achievable.”

Despite his optimism, Pujolar conceded: “It will be not easy but I think it is possible and we will try. I think at the end of the day it could have been much worse from where they were at the beginning.

“We managed to recover some ground in the race and they lost a lot of ground but now the difference in points, I think it is not huge and we have still got a lot of races to do.

“So I think we can do it.”