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Third and final day of Bahrain Pre-Season Testing concludes

Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake completed its pre-season activities with a busy day at the Bahrain International Circuit. Valtteri Bottas’s 131 laps brought the team’s tally to 401 for three days of testing, with Valtteri and Zhou Guanyu amassing a total of 2,170 kilometres. The data collected will allow the team to prepare in the best possible way for the opening round of the season, next week’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

In the final day of on-track action, a technical issue to the C43 cost the team some time in the morning but, thanks to the great job by the garage crew, Valtteri was able to return to track early in the afternoon and complete his programme, with the lap count well into the triple figures by the time the chequered flag fell.

Over the three days, Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake were able to extensively test the new tyres provided by Pirelli, learning about the new compounds that will accompany the team throughout the season; and put to the test the power unit by Ferrari, which will enable the C43 to compete at its highest levels. The work the team completed with its partners will be at the base of what promises to be an exciting 2023 season.

Most importantly, the team in Sakhir was able to complete a productive test thanks to the precious work of the “home team” back in Hinwil: following months of development of the C43 and an intense production period, the crew in Switzerland also provided constant support to those in Bahrain, enabling them to complete the programme successfully.

Circuit: Bahrain International Circuit / 5.412 km
Driver: Valtteri Bottas
Chassis / engine: Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake C43-03 / Ferrari
Laps: 131 laps, 708.972 km
Fastest Lap: 1:30.827

Valtteri Bottas (Car 77): “Overall, I am pretty satisfied with how these testing days have gone; the car felt good, and I reckon the feeling in the cockpit improved over the winter. We got plenty of laps in today, despite a technical issue which cost us some time. Thanks to the work of our mechanics, I was able to return to the track rather quickly and complete the whole programme we had set for ourselves for this final day: I am grateful for their effort, as well as for that of everyone back at the factory in Hinwil. I am looking forward to getting back on track in a week and finally get that racing feeling again.”

Jan Monchaux, Technical Director: “We can be satisfied about these three days of solid work. The most important thing when having limited testing is to tick off all the boxes, and we’ve managed to do that: we collected plenty of data and I feel we’ve prepared for the season as best as we could. Reliability was reasonably good for this stage in the season, and when we had some minor issues, the good work by our crew enabled us to make up the lost time without affecting our programme. Overall, we have to say thanks to our colleagues back in Hinwil, as well as to our race team, for putting us in the best possible conditions ahead of this testing session. Performance wasn’t yet our main aim: we didn’t focus on what the others were doing but simply looked at ourselves. Like everyone else on the grid, we still have some homework to do ahead of next week, of course: we remain focused on delivering our best work in what is going to be a long season, and we’re excited to go back to racing at last.”

Priyadarshan G

Priyadarshan G

priyadarshan

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