Alfa Romeo has unveiled its 2021 F1 racecar dubbed the C41 which will be helmed by 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi. The C41 name is interesting since the 2020 car was named the C39. This change in the naming scheme has been perpetuated by the coronavirus pandemic which pushed back the regulation changes that were supposed to be enabled from 2021 to 2022. This means the 2022 Alfa Romeo will be called the C40.
undefinedHello, you beauty.????#C41 #AlfaRomeoRacing #ORLEN pic.twitter.com/4GuSUI9O0Z
— Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN (@alfaromeoracing) February 22, 2021
Visually, like the McLaren and AlphaTauri cars, there is very little to differentiate between the 2020 and 2021 cars, however, in accordance with the 2021 rules changes, the ground floor area has been reduced and up to 10 per cent, aerodynamic downforce has been reduced on the vehicles.
That being said the team spent its two development tokens on a new nose, a nose box and a crash box.
Alfa Romeo will be hoping for a better show from sister concern Ferrari which is delivering the power unit. Ferrari has been hard at work developing an all-new power unit that could dramatically positively change the fortunes of Alfa Romeo as it was one of the weak links for the poor performance of the Italian team in 2020.
The new car has a new nose and nose box
Ferrari boss, Mattia Binotto has already hinted that the 2021 power unit will likely not be the weakest unit on the grid, though he admitted it may still not be the class of the field.
In 2019, Ferrari and its customers had the most powerful power unit but technical changes perpetrated by constant suspicions that the powertrain was illegal resulted in a dramatic loss of horsepower which flowed through 2020. Ferrari was blind-sighted further by the pandemic and the engine development freeze so it couldn't remedy the issue.
The new powertrain has been going great results in the dyno through 2020. In fact, Ferrari has also been developing another new power unit for 2022 which may get entered coinciding with the engine development freeze till 2024.
