Alfa Romeo head of trackside engineering Xevi Pujolar revealed that they lost their weight advantage after their opponents had introduced aerodynamic upgrades.
The weight of F1 cars was increased to 798 kilograms after the introduction of the new technical regulations. A lot of teams found it difficult to stay within the limit, while Alfa Romeo managed to do it.
A lighter car helped Alfa Romeo. They scored points in 6 out of 7 opening races. However, they were in the top 10 only once since the Monaco GP.
Pujolar believes that the weight advantage disappeared after their rivals had updated their challengers.
“I think probably some of the teams and the upgrades that they’ve been bringing in terms of aero performance, they reduced the weight [of their cars],” he said.
“So from our side, that was something that we were happy [with] at the beginning of the season, and some of the midfield or even the top teams had gains to do.
“We were quite strong at the beginning because we already had the weight advantage.
“I think we can still be close to Alpine, McLaren were quite strong [in Hungary] – but [we can still be fighting] one of them at least towards the top of the midfield.”
