Mountains to climb

There are some days in which everything that could go against you, does. These days are the embodiment of Murphy’s Law, occasions in which the world is out to get you, no matter what you do. Today was one of those days.

Lining up on the last row of the grid is never ideal; to do so in Hungary, even more so. It is a result that cannot make us happy, of course: but it is also one that will not sap our motivation to get back to the places where we belong.

On these days, it’s our team spirit that needs to come through. And tomorrow, come rain or shine, we’ll be there. We’ll pull ourselves back up, wipe the dust off our shirt and fight for a better place at the end of the race.

Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN and CEO Sauber Motorsport AG: “Today’s performance is far from where we expected to be and we will need to find the reasons for this result. We had made steps forward in the two races in Austria but we still have a lot of work ahead of us to get to the level where we need to be. The race tomorrow will be difficult: we hope to have better pace, but starting on the back row, Kimi and Antonio will have their work cut out. We’ll still give 100%, though, and see where that gets us.”

Kimi Räikkönen (car number 7):
Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN C39 (Chassis 02/Ferrari)
3rd practice: 19th / 1:17.527 (25 laps) Q: 20th / 1:16.614 (12 laps)

“We are still far from where we need to be. We need to analyse what went wrong and figure out how we get back from there. We have quite a bit of work to do in all areas, we need to get our speed back. Tomorrow is another day, even though it won’t be an easy Sunday, so let’s see what we can do.”

Antonio Giovinazzi (car number 99):
Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN C39 (Chassis 04/Ferrari)
3rd practice: 18th / 1:17.496 (20 laps) Q: 19th / 1:16.506 (12 laps)

“It’s been a very difficult day with a disappointing result. We have a lot of work to do to salvage something from this weekend, but we will need to see how the race goes tomorrow. The conditions are still uncertain, but in any case we need to understand what happened today. Starting from the back is not ideal, especially on a track where overtaking is not easy, but we can hope to have better pace in the race, as we did in Austria.”