Valtteri Bottas believes Alfa Romeo’s new front wing upgrade is working as intended, despite having to test it in wet conditions during practice at Suzuka.
Alfa Romeo described the new design as a “significant” change that it hopes will improve the car’s aerodynamic performance this weekend and in future races. Bottas tested it briefly during practice today. A second example will be available to teammate Zhou Guanyu to use tomorrow.
Bottas was delighted with the C42’s performance on a rainy day at Suzuka. “I think the car did really well today,” he said.
“At times we struggled a bit in the wet conditions but today everything seemed to work perfectly. We’ve got the tires to work with this track, they can generate a lot of power and heat that way. So that was positive.”
Bottas felt the team’s new front wing “seems to be working as expected”. The team had to rely more on his instincts as it hurt their chances of testing in wet weather.
“It definitely gave us a bit more stability at high speeds,” Bottas said. “That’s what I feel, that’s what he has to do.
“Obviously we lost a few sensors because of the wet conditions so we can’t measure that much with our air counts. But the sense-art was as it should be.”
The team was able to assess how much the wing changes the balance of the car, which will help them decide on preparation for tomorrow’s qualifying, when the track is expected to be dry.
“I felt the improvement. It was difficult because the tires were going,” Bottas added. [off]. Lots of high-speed corners and the tarmac is so rough that you’ll fall fast here. But the feeling was that he did most of what he was supposed to do.
At 300km/h the left-hander 130R had a brief moment when the car nearly snapped. He managed to grab the slipper and run onto the asphalt. “I think there’s a bit of stagnant water in the entry level, so it happens quickly,” Bottas said.
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2022 Japanese Grand Prix
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