"Always our plan to start early with the car for 2023".

Alfa Romeo fought mainly with Williams and Haas F1 last year to avoid coming last, but the introduction of the new regulations has worked out great for Frederic Vasseur's team. After nine Grands Prix the team is in sixth place in the Constructors' Championship, but P4 is certainly not out of reach. Alfa Romeo will slow down and try to optimise and maximise the current package.

Alfa Romeo has collected 51 points so far. That leaves it just a little way behind the fourth and fifth-placed teams, respectively McLaren (65 points) and Alpine (57 points). The employer of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu still has a few issues to resolve if they are to go for that coveted fourth spot in the World Championship, but it is certain that the potential is there.

The C42 has been hit with reliability problems several times this year. The Ferrari engine has its problems, but four times this season a leak in the cooling system has been detected. As a result, valuable track time was lost or even worse: DNF's on the Sunday. Furthermore, the Alfa Romeo car does not run very well on the C5 compound, the softest tyre that Pirelli can bring to a Grand Prix. It will be used at Silverstone this weekend.

Alfa Romeo must slow down

Despite this, Alfa Romeo has already managed to score a relatively high number of points. Team boss Vasseur explained to Auto, Motor und Sport Vasseur explains that the aim has always been to develop the car aggressively in the first part of the season, scoring points while the direct rivals have yet to unlock their full potential.

In Jeddah, Imola, Barcelona and Baku large update packages were successfully introduced. Now, however, the factory has to slow down. This is partly due to the budget ceiling and the limited resources that can be deployed. Vasseur is not worried about this: "It was always our plan to start early with the car for 2023." The Frenchman believes Alfa Romeo can remain perfectly competitive with this package.