Following the season finale in Abu Dhabi last weekend, Alfa Romeo team principal Frederic Vasseur has said they are currently not in a position to commit to Ferrari beyond next season.
Vasseur said he believes Ferrari “has mostly been a solid partner”, but added that he “can’t disagree” that their weak power unit ruined the team’s season.
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“We’re tied to Ferrari until the end of 2021. Then we’ll have to go over the books because the next contract should run from 2022 to 2026 because of the new cars,” Vasseur said in an interview with the German-language Blick newspaper.
“You can never tell. It’s like with a marriage. No one guarantees you’ll stay with the same woman forever – like me!
“You always have to take into account in a partnership that there will be ups and downs … So we have to ask ourselves: What’s the best deal? So far, Ferrari has mostly been a solid partner,” he added.
Asked if Ferrari’s weak power unit ruined Alfa Romeo’s season, Vasseur replied: “That’s your interpretation, but I can’t really disagree with you.
“Let’s say that the team slid into the crisis 80 percent because of Ferrari. We certainly lost 0.3 to 0.4 seconds per lap to our rivals.
“Just how big the Italians’ problems were was shown by the second half [of the season] when we were fighting against the factory team and even finished ahead of them in Abu Dhabi!
“Except for reliability, we can’t be satisfied with the results – but for Ferrari this year must have been a disaster,” he added.
Ferrari finished their 2020 campaign down in sixth in the Constructors’ Championship, making it their worst season since 1980.
The Scuderia managed only three podiums in the 17 grand prix of the 2020 season, with Charles Leclerc scoring two and Sebastian Vettel picking up their most recent podium after finishing third in the Turkish Grand Prix.
Ferrari’s two customer teams – Alfa Romeo and Haas – also had a miserable year, partly as a result of their power unit being weaker than last season due to a series of FIA technical directives on fuel flow regulation and the burning of engine oil to increase power output.
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