Fred Vasseur, Alfa Romeo Formula 1 boss, maintains that sixth place prize money will make a “big difference”.
The Swiss team secured sixth place in the constructors’ championship title. It narrowly escaped seventh place, to Aston Martin, because of winning on a countback of the best individual race finish.
The team scored the best standing since 2012, where it secured the sixth position. It struggled under three years Alfa Romeo brand, where it finished twice in eighth and once in the ninth position.
Extra position on the constrcutor championship provides $10-12m of extra F1 income. It will surely help the team to with the budget caps next season.
“It’s the best way for us to have a good winter, because everybody will be on a positive mood,” Vasseur told. “And this is very important.
“On the top of this it’s always crucial I think to have this kind of fight for us with Aston Martin – in terms of target it’s a good one. And for sure it will be also a very helpful on the financial side.
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“As we are below the cost cap, every single push will be a big difference. We will see next year, but for sure it will help.
“I know that some teams said that with $2m you can do nothing, but with $10m we will be able to do a lot!”
Vasseur appreciated the team’s strategy in Abu Dhabi. Guanyu Zhou and Valterri Bottas put their best effort to restrict Aston Martin from scoring extra points.
“If we had a better quali I think we’d have a fight on our own to score points,” said Vasseur.
“But with the quali we had no other option but to try to control a little bit the situation with the strategy, and we did it well.
“They both played a lot on the team side, and they did a great job on managing the situation with Vettel and Stroll. And for sure we can thank them at the end when we see that Vettel is fighting with Ricciardo.”
ion, and it became a bit more tricky.
“And the last couple of laps, I was the biggest fan of Daniel! For sure if Vettel was able to overtake Daniel it would have been another story.
“But for us at the end it’s a great achievement, and also the best preparation for next year.”
