Alfa still convinced early switch to 2022 car 'the right decision'

Alfa Romeo team boss Frederic Vasseur remains convinced that switching the team's resources to its 2022 car back in January was the right decision.

The Hinwil-based squad is enduring a difficult 2021 campaign, having scored just three points in the first half of the season.

A freeze on the development of the team's C41 leaves little hope of a significant improvement of Alfa's performance.

Vasseur accepts the Swiss outfit's current deadlock, believing that Alfa's step back this season will lead to two steps forward in 2022.

"I would love for the team to score more points," the Frenchman told Motorsport.com.

"We've made some big efforts inside the team, but the main reason that we are losing a little bit in performance from the beginning of the season is because we decided to switch, from January, to 100 percent on 2022.

"When I see the updates from the other teams, even if they all say that they switched to the 2022 car, they have updates every single weekend!

"But when we took the decision I knew that if you switch 100 percent to the next year's car, then you won't develop the 2021 car. And that's the case.

"But I think it was the right decision for us, because where we were last year, if we keep the same car and continued to invest and develop it, I'm not sure that it makes complete sense in terms of championship position.

"If you have a look at the gap to Toro Rosso [AlphaTauri] or Renault [Alpine], the gap is huge, but I'm really convinced that it was the right decision.

"We knew that there was an upside and a downside, but now you have to deal with the downside."

• Read also: Alfa Romeo reveals deadline for 2022 line-up decision

After last month's British Grand Prix, Kimi Raikkonen urged his team to "wake up and do something" to improve the pace of its C41.

While big gains will be hard to come by because of the car's status quo, Vasseur believes there is scope for improvement, on both the team's side and from its drivers.

"We won't go back into the windtunnel for sure, and the engine is frozen," he explained. "But as a team we have plenty of room for improvement.

"If you have a look at the comparison of our drivers, one is more performing in qualifying, the other one in the race. And we have to get the best from both of them.

"With track operations, I'm sure we have room for improvement, just like in terms of tyre management, set up of the car and on every single topic that you have to deal on track.

"This is important for me, because all the improvement that we will do as a team on this side, it's also probably what you can carry over for next year.

"We have room for improvement and we are not speaking about seconds. Very often between P8, P9 and P14 you have just a couple of tenths.

"I want to keep everybody under pressure and continue to push in the same direction."

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