Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake hops over the Atlantic Ocean for the first of an exciting triple-header of races in the Americas, the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.
Buoyed by a double-points finish in Qatar, the team heads Stateside full of confidence, with new upgrades and an undiminished hunger for points in its pursuit of P7 in the constructors' championship.
Nancy Sinatra was never meant to sing her iconic 1966 song, "These boots are made for walkin'". The piece had been written by Lee Hazlewood, who had intended to sing it himself: however, having entered a collaboration with Frank Sinatra's eldest daughter, the classic song was quickly identified as a potential chart-topper and quickly became Nancy's most successful tune.
Sinatra's boots might have been a world apart from cowboy ones, but, as we head to Austin, there'll still be plenty of boots doing the walkin', the talkin' and especially the drivin'. For all the urban flair and cool vibes of Austin, a big university city and one of America's fastest growing metropolitan areas, Texas's capital is still proudly cowboy country - boots, hats, yee-haws and all that. It's a place where people wear their hearts on their sleeves; where the barbecue pits keep churning plates deep into the night; where pick-up trucks are the proud norm, not the exception.
To fully imbibe the spirit of the place, therefore, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu will be swapping their driving boots, too, for the cowhide, riding kind. It's only when immersed in the true Austin style - cowboy leather on your feet, ten-gallon hat and all that - that you can do COTA right. It'll be a fitting start to a crucial weekend for the team: following the strong performance in Qatar, where both Valtteri and Zhou finished in the points, needs to be sustained by another good showing, especially as the home team keeps pushing, with a new set of upgrades to be introduced in Austin. As our drivers head to the paddock in their new Texas style, then it's not just fashion and style at play, but something much more significant than that.
When Nancy Sinatra took over her song from Hazlewood, she turned a fine, but standard, folk-rock tune and turned it into an anthem of defiance, a way to say she wouldn't be pushed around: just as Nancy was saying "I'll show you just what I can do", so we will head out to double down on our Qatar result to make another step forward, not leaving any stone unturned, any inch of track undriven, every marble-worth of tyre rubber unspent. We will engineer, build, drive our way into contention for the points, giving everything - leather boots, hats and all - to reach our target for the season.
After all, our boots are made for drivin', and that is what they'll do. And one of these days...
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative: "We head to Texas with confidence, eager to keep up with the great performance showcased in Doha two weeks ago. The points we brought home boosted our morale and our motivation to work hard to meet our season targets. With a triple header approaching, it will be crucial to remain at the top of our game throughout all the races to maximise our potential. We have had a demonstration that, if we do our job right, we have a clear chance to score points in every remaining race, starting from Austin. This will be another Sprint event, so it will be important to make the most of the sole practice session and prepare to our best for the rest of the weekend. I am positive that, if each of us keeps up with the work done in Qatar, we'll be able to extend our positive streak into this weekend and forward."
Valtteri Bottas: "It was great to get back into the points in Qatar, in particular doing so with the kind of race we had: all of us as a team, both trackside and back at base, needed that, and we'll be ready to battle until the very last lap to try and move forward in the standings. I really enjoy being in the States, I come here quite often throughout the year, and I'm looking forward to the weekend ahead. Austin is always good fun; I like the track - I have also won from pole here in 2019. Besides getting twice the chances of scoring points again, having two Sprint weekends in a row means we know well what worked in Qatar, and how we can work on maximising our performance straight away. We know our car has the potential to do well, and the upgrades we have introduced over the past month are making a positive difference: we have new bits coming this weekend, too, and I am confident we can keep up with what we have shown two weeks ago and add more points to our name."
Zhou Guanyu: "The points we scored in Doha gave us great confidence and, of course, made us even hungrier: our championship target, seventh place, is just a handful of points in front of us, and we are ready to go for it. We had a really good race on Sunday in Qatar, with the right strategy, strong tyre management, and consistent pit stops as well - we have been able to deliver when it mattered the most, and we should aim to do it again. I have enjoyed racing in Austin last year, and I'm looking forward to this week. Everything is bigger in Texas and so is this Grand Prix: the enthusiasm of the fans on the grandstands is unmatched. We'll aim to put up a good show for them, while we battle to make it into the top ten again."
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