Alfa Romeo 'working hard' to complete new simulator

Alfa Romeo Racing is doubling down on its efforts to complete its new state-of-the-art simulator at Hinwil after development work was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Swiss outfit invested heavily in the new piece of infrastructure at the end of 2019 with the hope that it would become an important development tool in 2020.

Unfortunately, the onslaught of COVID-19 derailed the timely completion of Sauber's new simulator.

"Unfortunately, this project was shelved because of the COVID crisis, the long plant shutdown, and some internal issues we had," Alfa technical director Jan Monchaux told Motorsport.com.

"We certainly lost three or four months on the development level [of the simulator]. We are now working extra hard to speed it up.

"We are slowly coming to a level where we hope it starts to come in handy."

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Monchaux says he's confident the team's simulator will be up and running in time for the virtual development of Alfa's all-important 2022 car, but the Swiss insisted Sauber will not rush the completion of its sim.

"The 2021 car did not really benefit from the simulator, that’s for sure," he said.

"We must also be careful because if we jump too early on a tool that is not well calibrated and untrustworthy, we risk making some expensive decisions a year down the road on the new car.

"Instead, we plan to take it gradually, do a lot of correlation before and after the grands prix, mainly with the drivers, to build that confidence we need and, step by step, start using the tool to make decisions.

"Currently, it is not there yet. I hope the 2022 car will already benefit more from this new tool."

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