02/11/2021
NEWS STORY
Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN heads to Mexico City for the first time since 2019 as the 18th round of the 2021 Formula One World Championship looms. It is a welcome comeback for a loved event, the Mexican Grand Prix, with the team aiming to return to point-scoring ways in the thin air of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
The Mexican Grand Prix represents the first race in a triple-header that will also take us to Brazil and Qatar: it is a known territory, a track with no secrets but that represents a challenge nonetheless. It's a quick circuit, in which the altitude-induced lack of drag is a key factor, as well as tyre degradation. It's a race that has given us spectacular events in the past and, not least, it's a brilliant event most paddock insiders love to attend.
Racing in Mexico is a celebration of Formula One: an enthusiastic, knowledgeable crowd unleashes incredible passion and the whole city, in its immensity, embraces the race. The celebrations extend to within the paddock - you're never too far from a mariachi band, anywhere you may be working...
There's fiesta outside the track, of course, but we will be aiming to turning the celebrations going on the black stuff too. Two races in Turkey and Austin saw us finish just outside the points, in P11, pushing hard for a place in the top ten: to finally crack the points in Mexico City would be a good way to join in the party...
Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal: "The three races we'll tackle in the next three weeks will be a test for the whole team, especially coming towards the end of such a long season. However, they also represent a big opportunity as we know there will be chances to come home with points in each of them. Mexico City is a very peculiar track, and the thin air makes set-up choices a challenge. We've seen strategy play a big role there in the past, especially when it came to tyres, so we will need to do our job well both in the cockpit and the pit-wall to make sure we maximise our returns from this race. We have been 11th six times this season, thrice as many times as anyone else on the grid, so it shouldn't be a surprise if we end up fighting for the points once again on Sunday."
Kimi Raikkonen: "We hope to be able to score points in Mexico City: we went really close in the last couple of races so our pace should allow us to be in the fight but, as always, it will be a matter of getting everything right across the weekend. This is a very slippery track and it's easy to make mistakes, especially in qualifying, but it's really rewarding when you put a lap together. Saturday will be important - there are overtaking opportunities after the long straights, but elsewhere it's really hard to pass as the track gets narrow and twisty in the middle sector."
Antonio Giovinazzi: "It's great to come back to Mexico, it's one of those venues where the crowd really makes itself part of the show. In this regards, it feels like being in Italy and that gives me a lot of energy for the race weekend. We have three races in three weeks, three more chances to score points: we have been getting closer with each race, so hopefully this is the time we bring home the reward our work deserves. The spirit of the team is still really strong and we're all pushing in the same direction, and we will do that until the very last corner in Abu Dhabi."