search
date/time
Lancashire Times
A Voice of the Free Press
frontpagebusinessartscarslifestylefamilytravelsportsscitechnaturefictionCartoons
Graham Read
Formula 1 Correspondent
9:29 AM 27th February 2022
sports

Alfa Romeo Reveals Its C42 In Its Official Livery

 
Alfa Romeo has become the final Formula 1 team to reveal the official new livery of its C42 challenger for the 2022 season during an online event this morning. The Polish oil refiner and petrol retailer Orlen features heavily as the outfit’s title sponsor and also the backer of reserve driver Robert Kubica.

Alfa Romeo’s C42 in its official new livery
Alfa Romeo’s C42 in its official new livery
The team’s new car had already appeared recently in a very much black-and-white camouflage livery at Ferrari’s private Fiorano track in Maranello and then also at last week’s three day test in Barcelona, but today its true appearance was unveiled with Alfa Romeo’s traditional branding retained but with last season’s predominantly white colouring having now become red.

It’s all change on the driver front too for the Swiss based and Sauber run Alfa Romeo outfit following the retirement of Kimi Räikkönen at the end of last season and the simultaneous dropping of the Italian Antonio Giovinazzi. Behind the wheel of the C42 this year will be a new team leader in the form of 32 year old Valtteri Bottas, who had became surplus to requirements at Mercedes with George Russell arriving. The Finn understandably hadn’t wanted to leave the highly successful German team, having arrived at the start of the 2017 season following the sudden retirement of the previous year’s champion Nico Rosberg, but ultimately he wasn’t given a choice as the team felt now was the time to bring in the rising young British star Russell after three seasons at Williams. Looking to the future, Bottas commented during today’s unveiling “The size of the team is quite a bit smaller than Mercedes, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing and at least so far I’ve been enjoying it.”

Before today the car had only been seen bearing camouflage paintwork
Before today the car had only been seen bearing camouflage paintwork
Alongside Bottas at Alfa Romeo will be the Chinese F1 rookie Guanyu Zhou, who is 10 years younger and finished third in the 2021 FIA F2 championship. Significantly the young Chinese driver brings significant financial sponsorship with him from his home country.

The team finished a lowly ninth in last season’s Constructors’ championship after scoring just 13 points and therefore only performed better than the pointless Haas team. However, the arrival of its new drivers and the additional funding has left hopes high that they will perform better and enjoy more success this year despite encountering some technical issues which impacted on its performance during the Spanish test. An upbeat team principal Frederic Vasseur enthused “The C42 is a car we look forward to see racing, not just because it is the first we built in this new regulations cycle, one in which racing should be closer and more thrilling, but because we have the utmost confidence in this car helping the team make a big step forward towards the front of the grid.”

Alfa Romeo’s new drivers, Valtteri Bottas (right) and Guanyu Zhou
Alfa Romeo’s new drivers, Valtteri Bottas (right) and Guanyu Zhou
A second and final three day test will be held in Bahrain starting a week on Friday, as the ten teams pore over all the data recorded in Spain and continue to make their cars as competitive as possible before the opening Grand Prix of the year in the same Middle Eastern country on 20 March. Only then will we start to have a better understanding of who has best mastered the new regulations and who hasn’t, as all the teams showed that they have issues to deal with and more speed will clearly be found when solutions are implemented and everyone’s true hand is finally revealed.