Alfa Romeo on Sunday revealed images of the bold, striking red and white livery that will adorn their 2022 Formula 1 challenger, the C42.
The Swiss team ran a special camouflage design during three days of pre-season running in Barcelona, with Valtteri Bottas, rookie Zhou Guanyu and reserve Robert Kubica sharing driving duties.
A series of mechanical glitches confined the car to the garage for long periods, and they ultimately managed just 175 laps, putting them ninth out of 10 teams in the mileage charts.
They became the final squad to launch their season - showcasing a livery that they said is "a subtle nod to the past, recalling historical designs of years past and the heritage of Alfa Romeo and Sauber Motorsport" in what will be the Hinwil team's 30th year in F1.
Bottas, who joined from Mercedes and completed only 54 laps in Barcelona, said: "What is exciting is that we have no idea how that first race is going to pan out. Testing helped us confirm our expectations of where we stand, the progress we have made with the car, but now we are getting closer to the moment that really matters."
Zhou, who finished third in F2 last year before stepping up to F1 with Alfa Romeo, said: "I am fully pumped up for the season and seeing the C42 in the livery in which I will race it definitely makes it real. We are at the beginning of a new era, with new cars and new regulations, and this creates an opportunity for all teams to make progress since we are all starting from scratch."
Alfa Romeo, along with their rival nine teams, will get the chance to gain more mileage with the new cars at the Official Pre-Season Test in Bahrain, which begins on March 10.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor