The new for 2022 technical regulations meant there was a huge opportunity for teams across the grid to change their fortunes. For the Sauber Motorsport-run Alfa Romeo Formula 1 team, which unquestionably suffered poor performance in the latter years of the previous generation of cars, the revolution has certainly been welcomed, and in the C42, the team’s 2022 challenger, it’s made the best of the opportunity presented to it. At the time of writing it lies sixth in the Constructors’ championship.
The technical director of the Alfa Romeo Formula 1 Team, Jan Monchaux, says of the C42: ‘It has been a significant journey to the 2022 car, and so far, other than a few teething problems, it has been a huge positive shift for the team. Our good results are unlocking a lot of energy in the company; this movement is excellent for the momentum of the car development and performance.’
Monchaux also noted that the team has been working to improve its operations so as to make fewer mistakes and make the most of the fresh start at the beginning of the 2022 regulations. ‘We had to be strategic about the car’s development before the start of the 2022 season, as various elements had to be homologated at different times throughout the development period,’ he says. ‘You want to spend the most amount of time you can afford on the development of each part, so working right up to the deadlines we set was critical to exploit the time we had available.’
Fresh start
The C42’s development started in early 2021 and was a massive effort from the entire Sauber Group, starting with a blank sheet of paper for every part of the car, with no known baseline for many of them. ‘As you have such little reference, it was even more important to do the homework,’ Monchaux
