Alfa Romeo has “no need to panic” says Vasseur

Alfa Romeo Racing boss Fred Vasseur insists there is “no need to panic” with improved qualifying performances despite only two points finishes in the past five races.

Kimi Raikkonen had been consistently scoring points for the team before the summer break, accumulating the majority of their total in the constructors’ standings but has failed to finish in the top ten since the summer break.
 
Antonio Giovinazzi only picked up one point prior to the summer break but has since finished ninth and 10th in Italy and Singapore while also improving his qualifying performances.
 
Vasseur said to Motorsport.com: “There’s no need to panic.
 
“Each time it’s a different scenario. I would be very worried if we were one second off in quali, but it’s not the story.
 
“The race might be difficult to manage, but it’s more easy to find the pace in the race than in quali.
 
“In Spa for example we were P5 in Turn 1, in Monza we were in Q3. Sometimes for one tenth, plus or minus, you can have the feeling that the situation is completely different. We always have to be very careful with this.
 
“We’ve moved from seventh or eighth [best team] in quali, but this is one tenth. Perhaps we could do a better job by one tenth.

Much like Haas, but not to the extent, Alfa too have admitted struggling to understand the Pirelli tyres for race conditions for optimum pace."

“It’s difficult to know what’s wrong. We are struggling to be consistent over the race, and I think that was the issue over the last two or three events,” he added.

“Sometimes you are in the right window, sometimes not, depending on the track layout or the track temp or so on.”