Each week we will preview a different F1 team and their outlook for the 2020 season. This week we'll start with our projected 8th place team, Alfa Romeo, and go down all the way to our projected No. 1 team.
Overview: One of Formula One’s oldest teams, Alfa Romeo has had no problem securing good drivers, but has struggled with keeping them around for more than a couple of seasons. One of the top young talents in sport, Charles Leclerc, was with the team in 2018 before Ferrari gave him the opportunity of a lifetime and lured him away. The same can be said for countless others who have driven for the team, who changed its name from “Sauber” to “Alfa Romeo” in 2019. With experience in the drivers’ seats and no distractions off the track (unlike Haas, see last week’s article https://360sports.wixsite.com/riley/post/f1-preview-haas), Alfa Romeo’s 2020 performance in what will be a shortened season appears it will come down to how well the team can push the speed of the car, while maintaining control of the car and keeping up with the rest of the field.
Drivers: Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) and Antonio Giovinazzi (Italy)
The 2019 Oakland Athletics of F1 (Oakland had one of the youngest players in 21 year old Jesus Luzardo and the oldest in 42 year old Fernando Rodney), Alfa Romeo has secured experience and a winning edge in the 40 year-old Raikkonen and young talent in Giovinazzi, who at 25, made his F1 debut in 2017, but didn’t drive a whole season until last year.
Besides his seriousness and focus that is evident on race day, Raikkonen is known for being F1’s most experienced driver. After making his debut in 1999, he raced for McLaren and Sauber before ascending to the pinnacle with Ferrari, who has long been known as one of F1’s top two teams. However, after some struggle with Ferrari and lack of points, Raikkonen left F1 completely, switching to racing rally cars and even a stint with NASCAR. Eventually, though, he found his way back to F1 and ended up making the most of his five seasons in his return to Ferrari. Now with Alfa Romeo and this being the possibility of his final season in F1, Raikkonen will be going all out when he hits the track with an “ice-cool” attitude, something that earned him the nickname, “Iceman”. Giovinazzi is young and untested, but showed flashes of talent even as a F3 driver. In 2020, he will be looking for his first podium finish as an F1 driver, but did score 14 points and finished 17th in the drivers standings last year.
In Preseason Testing…
While the team has had a lot of time to improve since February’s preseason testing, their performance at the event was anything but perfect. Not only did they clock the slowest lap of all 10 teams the final day, but also were second to the bottom in “short run pace”, which is the pace for individual laps.
The past:
Since the 1920s, Alfa Romeo has been involved in F1, first teaming up with Ferrari, then creating a team under the name “Alfa Corse”. Alfa Corse dominated in post World War II competition, winning every grand prix from 1946 to 1949 with the exception of three. Following that, two years were spent under the name Alfa Romeo S.p.A.. Although they had powerful engines, a lack of technology contributed to their quick decline. After 28 years of no F1 involvement, Alfa Romeo came back, with Benetton Team Alfa Romeo and lasted for six years, signing drivers such as Mario Andretti in the 1970s. A low point in their history came in 1980 when one of the drivers, Patrick Depailler, was killed in a crash at the 1980 German GP.
Then most recently, the Sauber F1 team was renamed to the current “Alfa Romeo F1 team” which started in 2019.
Future:
Moving forward, Alfa Romeo is in a good position, but like Williams and Haas, needs to improve the car. Having a faster car than the one they showed off at preseason testing looks to be the single-most important key to racing with the middle-of-the-pack teams. However, they should be encouraged by their talent level in the cars, as not many teams have the combo of experience and talent that Alfa Romeo does.
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