Alfa Romeo’s new F1 livery makes track debut in Barcelona

The team formally unveiled the C42 on Sunday morning after running the car in an interim livery during the three days of testing at the Spanish venue.

Guanyu Zhou was handed the first opportunity to take the newly-painted car out on track in Barcelona before handing over to test driver, Robert Kubica.

The C42 maintains the traditional red and white colours, with red more prominent for this season. 

Zhou - who spent the last three seasons in F2 - will race alongside 10-time grand prix winner Valtteri Bottas. 

Alfa Romeo endured a difficult first test, completing the second-fewest amount of laps as it was plagued with reliability issues.

The team is confident it will turn it around by the time F1 heads to Bahrain for the second test next month.

OK, we’re in love #C42 pic.twitter.com/NCEVYDH6Om

— Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN (@alfaromeoorlen) February 27, 2022

Speaking after the launch of the C42, team principal Frederic Vasseur says Alfa Romeo is aiming for seventh in the championship after slipping to ninth in 2021.

“The most important thing is to improve, always to improve and close the gap with the best ones on the grid,” he said.

“You can have different KPIs in terms of performance, but for sure we are fighting for the championship and, at the end of the day, the final target is to improve the championship position.

“We had a disappointing season last year with P9 and we want to do much better this season, but I also want to close the gap in terms of pure performance – because this is the reality of the job of the people back at the factory.

“If it comes to numbers, I would say that P7 would be a decent target.”