Alfa Romeo slipped to the rear of Formula 1’s midfield pecking order in the wake of failing to score points again at the Monaco Grand Prix.
Alfa Romeo held fourth in the Constructors’ Championship after the second round in Bahrain but has regressed to ninth off the back of two poor displays in Spain and Monaco.
Kimi Raikkonen ran a long stint, which involved a clash with Lance Stroll, before his sole stop in Monaco and was shuffled down to 17th, while Antonio Giovinazzi was penalised for making contact with Robert Kubica and took a twice-lapped 19th.
“We didn’t expect this to be an easy weekend and unfortunately it turned out to be the case,” said Raikkonen.
“It was quite a boring race and there was nowhere to pass: we finished where we were on lap one.
“Even though I had front wing damage, some issues before and after the stop and I was hit by [Lance] Stroll, none of these things ultimately had any impact on our finishing position.
“Once you’re behind a car, you’re stuck there unless they have a massive issue – it’s just how it is in Monaco.
“We tried something different with the strategy as it made no sense to copy what those in front of us did, but in the end it didn’t make us move forward. The only thing that could have given us a chance was rain, but it didn’t come.”
Giovinazzi was given a 10-second time penalty for spinning Kubica, compounding Alfa Romeo’s lacklustre weekend.
“I lost a position to a Williams in the first corner and, even though my pace was faster, I couldn’t find a way through,” he said.
“I tried a move at Rascasse but there was not enough space for two cars, we touched and I got stuck. It was really frustrating to stay behind slower cars, it ended up to be a fairly boring race for me.”
